BALTIMORE, Md. — You break it, you buy it. That's the message from some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who want the owners of the ship that crashed into the Key Bridge to be on the hook for much more than they've offered to pay.
“Access to America’s ports and our consumers is a privilege, not a right. If the foreign owners of the DALI want to keep that privilege, they can break out their checkbooks, call their insurance company, and pay their fair share of the bridge replacement costs and compensation to the families of the six workers who died tragically that day,” Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-8th District) said.
Congressman John Garamendi represents the San Francisco Bay Area and its Golden Gate Bridge. He's one of the sponsors of a bill called “Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessels Act."
It would increase the liability for foreign-flagged ships to up to 10 times the value of the ship and its cargo, minus expenses.
“It overrides this archaic 1851 provision of the law that eased up on the liability of vessels," Rep. Garamendi explained.
That 1851 law often called the “Titanic law" after it helped ease the costs for the owner of that ill-fated ship, limits the liability for shipping companies to just the value of the ship and its cargo, minus whatever damages it suffered during an accident.
“Which with an old broken-down ship as it turned out this was, it's very, very little,” Rep. Garamendi told WMAR-2 News.
Just under 44 million dollars to be exact. That's how much Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the companies responsible for the DALI, are trying to convince a judge is all they owe.
The “Titanic law” was designed to encourage more shipbuilding in the U.S. By protecting ship owners from too much risk. But now lawmakers say foreign companies are taking advantage of it, and that's how we get a ship like the Dali, described by U.S. Attorneys as "unseaworthy," in our waters.
“With the very low liability limits, people shrug their shoulders and they do cut corners; ‘we'll run the risk,’ “ Garamendi said.
If passed, the law would apply retroactively to March 25th, the day before the DALI set sail out of the Port of Baltimore.
Congressman Kweisi Mfume, who represents the area where the key bridge once stood, is also backing the bill.
“Today it's the Francis Scott Key Bridge but tomorrow it could be any bridge where a foreign vessel collides and creates this kind of havoc,” Rep. Mfume told WMAR-2 News. “I think this empowers people who are seeking litigation to be made whole because just by raising the limits of liability increases the possibility that some of these suits that are justified and will be deemed appropriate can in fact qualify for funding."
Regardless of whether this bill passes, the legal process will likely stretch on for years, so insurance payouts won't come for a while either.
That's why Congressman Mfume and other Maryland lawmakers are advocating for the federal government to front the costs of rebuilding the bridge, rather than waiting for that insurance money.
The state of Maryland already received a $350 million payout from Chubb, the insurer for the Key Bridge. Some of that money will be repaid to the feds for their help with the clean-up, and some will go towards the rebuild, reimbursed by the federal government later.
