BALTIMORE — Another slew of lawsuits against the owner and manager of the DALI container ship that caused the Key Bridge collapse.
This time Brawner Builders is suing. They're the Hunt Valley based construction company who employed six workers killed in the March 26 crash.
The litigation was filed a day after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a scathing claim against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., accusing them of "outrageous, grossly negligent, and reckless conduct" leading to the tragedy.
Brawner echos DOJ's allegations about the DALI and it's crew being ill-equipped and unprepared for such a disaster.
"Through this Claim, Brawner is seeking to recover for the financial consequences of the [crash] including the financial impacts from the loss of six beloved employeesand the injuries to one beloved employee, the loss of multiple vehicles, the loss of various equipment additions to the vehicles, and the loss of other equipment and tools that fell from the Key Bridge due to the [crash]."
The bodies of some workers were still inside Brawner company vehicles when they were recovered entrenched in the Patapsco River.
The families of three of those workers (Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, and Carlos Daniel Hernandez Estrella) have already filed wrongful death lawsuits against DALI ownership.
Grace Ocean and Synergy deny wrongdoing, and have requested a federal judge either fully exonerate them or cap liability at $43 million, which they say is the ship's value after damage and losses.
The DOJ pushed back taking the side of victims, demanding the DALI take full responsibility for the crash.
On Thursday the DALI departed Norfolk, Virginia for China.
A judge has ordered all legal claims to be filed by September 24.
The FBI and NTSB each have ongoing investigations into the crash.
