Baltimore longshoremen sue owner and manager of ship that caused the Key Bridge collapse

BALTIMORE (AP) — A group of Baltimore longshoremen have sued the owner and manager of the ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, arguing the companies should compensate them for wages lost while the port was closed in the aftermath of the deadly disaster.

The class action lawsuit adds to a slew of other legal claims alleging the ship’s Singapore-based owner and manager, Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Group, knowingly sent an unseaworthy ship into U.S. waters.

Six construction workers were killed in the collapse, which halted most maritime traffic through Baltimore’s busy port for months as crews worked around the clock to clear thousands of tons of mangled steel and concrete from the main shipping channel. During the initial cleanup, many longshoremen found themselves out of work.

“This was equivalent for longshoremen what the world experienced during COVID, when everything stopped,” said plaintiff Ryan Hale, who’s worked at the port for over a decade. “I’ll never forget, I wake up in the morning, getting ready for work, turn on the news — I had to flip the channels twice to make sure it wasn’t a horror movie.”

The port fully reopened once the channel was cleared in June, but traffic didn’t immediately bounce back because some ships had been rerouted as the global supply chain made adjustments in the immediate aftermath of the collapse.

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“Nearly six months later, shipping traffic in the Port of Baltimore has still not returned to pre-disaster levels,” attorneys for the longshoremen wrote in their claim. “Claimants’ incomes were and continue to be entirely dependent on the flow of cargo vessels in and out of the Port of Baltimore.”

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of roughly 2,200 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association union.

Baltimore attorney Billy Murphy, representing the plaintiffs, said they’re seeking to recover lost wages in addition to punitive damages.

Murphy held a news conference Thursday at which three of the plaintiffs spoke about how the port closure affected them. They said their access to jobs and benefits is based on seniority, so working fewer hours has serious implications because it could mean sliding back down the totem pole.

“Everything we obtain is acquired through hours,” Hale said.

A suit filed last week by the U.S. Department of Justice provided the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures on the Dali that left its pilots and crew helpless in the face of looming disaster. That complaint alleges mechanical and electrical systems on the massive ship had been “jury-rigged” and improperly maintained, culminating in a power outage as it approached the bridge. The crew’s efforts to restore power in time were also hindered by other problems on the ship.

Darrell Wilson, a Grace Ocean spokesperson, has said the ship’s owner and manager “look forward to our day in court to set the record straight.”

FBI agents boarded the Dali in April amid a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse. Agents boarded another container ship managed by Synergy while it was docked in Baltimore on Saturday.

The Dali was leaving Baltimore for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power blackouts. Six men on a road crew, who were filling potholes during an overnight shift, fell to their deaths as the bridge crumbled beneath them.

While the ship experienced a series of electrical issues before and after it departed Baltimore, the blackout that occurred as it approached the bridge likely resulted from a loose electrical connection, which had been damaged by the vibrations on the Dali, according to recent court filings.

Engineers on the ship manually restored power by reconnecting the tripped breakers, but it again switched off because of a problem with the fuel pumps. Attorneys allege the fuel supply to the ship’s generators was improperly reconfigured as a cost-cutting measure after Grace Ocean purchased it in 2017.

Grace Ocean and Synergy filed a court petition days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history. Since then, a number of entities have filed opposing claims, including Baltimore’s mayor and city council, families of the victims, local businesses and insurance companies. They’ve all been consolidated into one sprawling liability case and the deadline for most claims to be filed was Tuesday.