Department of Justice files lawsuit against owners of cargo ship Dali, seeking over $100 million related to Key Bridge collapse

The cargo ship Dali’s transformer was “jury-rigged” and had “cracked over time” and its backup transformer was unable to help because a safety feature had been “recklessly disabled,” contributing to the vessel ultimately knocking down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the United States Department of Justice.

The civil claim, which seeks more than $100 million in costs associated with cleanup and recovery efforts from the disaster, says the Dali’s Singaporean owners “sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways.” The owner and manager of the ship, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine, “cut corners,” according to the lawsuit, and made calamitous decisions “to save money and for their own convenience.”

Accusations in the claim are based upon the Department of Justice’s own investigation. The lawsuit also details the frantic four minutes between when the Dali first lost power and when it struck one of the bridge’s piers. After the failure of the transformer (which converts high-voltage power to lower volt-power) and after the backup transformer did not automatically kick in, “engineers were left struggling in the dark to manually reset the tripped circuit breakers” for the transformer.

“This took them a full minute, wasting critical time to regain control of the ship,” the claim said.

The federal government seeks to recover more than $100 million from damages caused by the March 26 collapse, which killed six construction workers. The suit does not seek to recover costs from the rebuilding of the bridge, which is expected to open in 2028, since the state of Maryland owns the structure. The state is expected to later file its own suit.

“With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The Department of Justice called the collapse “entirely avoidable” in its claim and called the vessel owner’s conduct “outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless.” It is also seeking “punitive damages” to “deter such misconduct.”

“They cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure,” the claim stated. “Those responsible for the vessel must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic harm they caused, and punitive damages should be imposed to deter such misconduct.”

This story will be updated.