Titanic law may help ship Dali owner reduce liability in Baltimore bridge collapse: Experts

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in USA’s Baltimore collapsed into the Patapsco River on Tuesday after it was struck by a huge container ship Dali.

Legal experts say that a Titanic law may help the owner of the ship, Singapore-based Grace Ocean, reduce its liability for the damages, reported Bloomberg.

However, the owner may still have to pay millions of dollars in damage claims. Six persons working on the bridge who fell into the water and went missing are presumed to be dead.

How the container ship owner may reduce liability for the damages

The 19th-century law was once invoked by the owner of the Titanic to limit its payout for the 1912 sinking of the ship. The law can help shipping giants from suffering heavy losses from disasters at sea.

Martin Davies, the director of Tulane University’s Maritime Law Center, has claimed that the 1851 law could lower the exposure to tens of millions of dollars by capping the ship owner’s liability at how much the vessel is worth after the crash, plus any earnings it collected from carrying the freight on board.

“It’s a very unusual casualty in one respect, particularly because of this footage of the whole bridge falling down. But in many ways, it’s not unusual, because ships collide and there’s damage and there’s injury all the time,” said Davies.

Also, the ship owner’s insurance would help the company through the legal risks, says the report. Insurance claims will be based on proving whether the accident was caused by negligence, and if so by whom, or mechanical failure.

The ship is insured by the Britannia Protection and Indemnity Club, which is a mutual insurance association that’s owned by shipping companies. It’s one of the dozen clubs that make up the International Group of P&I Clubs.

Expected liability due to the bridge collapse

As per the Bloomberg report, insurance claims for damage to the bridge could reach $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, claims relating to wrongful death and business interruption, in which a business claims economic losses from an accident, are likely to range from $350 million to $700 million.

The amount claimed in wrongful death cases is linked to each victim’s age and earnings potential. Families of the bridge workers now presumed dead can also advance workers compensation claims against the employer through its insurance, said Charles Gilman, a personal injury lawyer in Maryland.

“I think you’re going to see all sorts of lawsuits from all sorts of angles, against every defendant that could possibly be named,” said Gilman.

Gilman added that such suits are likely to be filed fairly soon and the list of defendants will narrow as more information emerges about who may be liable and who is less likely to be.