Baltimore battles ship owners’ effort to limit liability in bridge collapse
Baltimore battles ship owners’ effort to limit liability in bridge collapse
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 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.”
This is America, so I assume Grace Ocean will win and ships will be allowed to crash into bridges whenever captains feel the urge.
The free market will decide (if this bridge comes down today)
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.
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.
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.
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
"It jumped right in front of us!"
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
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?
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.
Oh look it's the exact fucking thing I said was going to happen, is happening, and all you chuckle fucks downvoted me into oblivion.
Mark my words -- only the taxpayers will be fixing this. Same as always.
Apparently some are not familiar with socialized losses and privatized profits. Well gather round kiddos and I'll recount the tale of Bear Sterns and the brothers Lehman.
Haven't you been posting this exact thing on every article about this crash? I'm pretty sure I've seen loads of people even combing through and pointing out the flaws in your original argument.
Franky I don't really care but you could just be annoying the shit out of everyone and that's why you're attacked with downvotes (as if that matters). You do you it's not my place to tell someone how to go about their life. I just wanted to add some perspective as a non bias party