MV Dali Ship Owner Seeks $44 Million Liability Limit In Baltimore Bridge Incident

The petition is one of the common actions for vessel owners in the wake of disastrous crashes such as the one in Baltimore.

It invokes a 19th-century law once used by the Titanic’s owner to diminish the vessel owner’s liabilities following a collision to the value of the vessel and pending freight.

The firms said that they anticipate the liability limit they seek to be substantially lower than the amount that was or will be claimed in the damages or losses. This petition comes less than a week after the 26 March crash, and parts of the vessel remain stuck at the accident site.

The owner of the vessel that slammed into a bridge in Baltimore last week, killing six employees and throwing the eastern US transportation network into disorder, is seeking to restrict the liability to almost $43.7 million.

Legal specialists say Grace Ocean’s firm could face millions of dollars in damage claims. On Monday, it reportedly filed a petition with Synergy Marine, which operated the Singapore-flagged vessel.

The petition claims that the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was not owing to the firms’ neglect, fault, or lack of care and that they should not be held liable for losses or damages from the catastrophe.

But if they’re held liable, it should not be for more than the current value of the vessel and its cargo, they declared. Following the collision, the value has fallen from as much as $90 million up to $43,670,000, per the filing in federal court based in Maryland.

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The firms said they expect the liability limit they seek to be substantially less than the amount that has been or will be claimed in losses or damages.

They want lawsuits against them due to the bridge collapse to be prosecuted in Maryland’s federal court, where the firms filed petitions.

The law that would facilitate Grace Ocean to curb the liability was used by the owner of a dive boat that caught fire off the southern California coast in 2019 and took the lives of 34.

In such a case, vessel owner Truth Aquatics filed a petition to a federal court in California three days after the disastrous voyage.

Families of victims filed many wrongful death claims for unspecified amounts in damages. That litigation has yet to be resolved more than four years later, indicating a lengthy legal battle for Synergy and Grace Ocean.

To get over the liability limit, all those seeking to recover funds from the Dali’s owners would likely have to show that the ship was not seaworthy owing to issues like an incompetent crew or mechanical glitches, said Steven Yerrid, a lawyer who was representing the pilot of the vessel that struck the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, in 1980, taking the lives of 35.

Yerrid mentioned that it is a permitted entitlement; it is not a guarantee. A ship owner found to have an unseaworthy vessel loses the right to limit the funds recovered by injured individuals, dead people, or those with the right to sue.

The limitation fund is for those who sail seaworthy vessels with skilled crews. If that is not found, then they will not get the limitation.

Reference: Bloomberg, Live Mint

MV Dali Ship Owner Seeks $44 Million Liability Limit In Baltimore Bridge Incident appeared first on Marine Insight – The Maritime Industry Guide

Source: Maritime Shipping News