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submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

The city said the companies’ effort to limit responsibility for the vessel and the cargo’s value to $43.6 million is “substantially less than the amount that will be claimed for losses and damages” arising out of the Dali’s collision with the Key Bridge.

The owners of the Dali cargo ship were negligent and should be held fully liable for the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which killed six people, the city of Baltimore said in court filings Monday.

In response to the vessel owners’ petition filed in U.S. District Court this month seeking to limit their liability, Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore City Council argued Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd. “put a clearly unseaworthy vessel into the water," and they called the companies’ actions “grossly and potentially criminally negligent.”

The city of Baltimore is demanding a jury trial, saying the companies’ effort to limit responsibility for the vessel and the cargo’s value at $43.6 million is “substantially less than the amount that will be claimed for losses and damages arising out of the Dali’s allision [collision] with the Key Bridge.”

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago

This is America, so I assume Grace Ocean will win and ships will be allowed to crash into bridges whenever captains feel the urge.

[-] Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago

The free market will decide (if this bridge comes down today)

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 months ago

Or if they lose, they close the company, file for bankruptcy, and reappear 8 hours later with a new AI generated name and logo and the same dangerous ships.

[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago

Relevant to the article is the US Limitation of Liability Act of 1851. This law allows a company to limit their total liability to the value of the ship and cargo. It's a leftover from a different age where the US Government was trying to promote trade. Today, it's used by companies to shirk liability when their greed and lack of care leads to death and destruction.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago

Well is it still legal and on the books? Has it ever been successfully ignored? Seems like the feds failure to remove the law.

The criminal negligence should still happen, at least. I wonder if the captain ever told the company execs that the ship wasn't seaworthy. I'm sure it will just all fall back to the captain, though. The rich people never get in trouble for quasi-accidentally killing people.

[-] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That law does not cover the owners if we can prove they put an unseaworthy vessel to work and we can prove they knew of its unseaworthiness

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

"It jumped right in front of us!"

[-] Somethingcheezie@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Don’t all harbours have “pilots” who come out and guide ships in and out of their harbours. Sort for the sole purpose of avoiding things like bridges

[-] theareciboincident@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Genuine question: are you saying the harbor pilot/guide/whatever should have somehow simply fixed a total loss of power and control surfaces caused by negligent maintenance practices on a ship larger than the spaceship Enterprise instead of using those few minutes warning authorities to limit death and damage?

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Pilots are experts on their particular harbor, channel, etc. They have no responsibility though, that’s all on the captain, ship owners, etc.

Also it’s pretty clear that you somehow know nothing about this incident.

[-] Somethingcheezie@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Not American nothing close to local news. Lots going on in the world and most worse and makes you want to avoid the news.

[-] BangCrash@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

Yet you decided to voice your opinion on a matter that you know nothing about?

this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
204 points (98.1% liked)

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