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https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2024-10-24/justice-department-settles-with-ship-company-over-baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-for-102m

The U.S. Justice Department and the companies that own and managed the Dali, the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, reached a nearly $102 million settlement Thursday.

The agreement comes one month after the federal government sued the companies to recoup the costs for the responding to the March 26 disaster that killed six people and caused the Key Bridge to collapse.

The settlement is only about $1 million less than what the Justice Department originally asked from the companies.

The companies are being sued by the state of Maryland, Baltimore city and County, the families of the victims, local businesses, unions of employees at the Port of Baltimore and companies that had cargo on the ship.

Grace Ocean filed for limited liability under the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, which allows ship owners to reduce their exposure under certain circumstances.

That law could cap the damages the companies pay at about $44 million.

Those suing the companies need to show the company was negligent in order to vacate that cap in court.

In its filing, Baltimore is making the case that Grace Ocean provided the ship with an incompetent crew, unseaworthy equipment and failed to maintain the vessel in a reasonable manner.

This is a start but there are still other ongoing lawsuits as detailed in the article and a lot more is going to be needed to fully recover the cost of the bridge collapse. It's cost estimate for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge is between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, and of course there needs to be some kind of settlement paid to the families of the workers who were killed.