The owners of the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse, will likely invoke a 19th-century law used after the sinking of the Titanic to limit damages paid following the tragedy, three maritime law experts told Business Insider .
The Baltimore Bridge collapsed after a pier was hit by a shipPhoto: Mark Schiefelbein / AP / Profimedia
The law in question, called the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, states that a shipowner can limit the damages he pays by relating them to the value of the ship at the end of the voyage, plus the value of the cargo it carries transport, as long as it can prove that they did not know in advance of the problems.
In the case of ships that sank during the voyage the value “at the end of the voyage” essentially means the items recovered from it. For example, in the case of the Titanic, reporting was done on the value of the lifeboats lowered during the sinking.
Congress in Washington passed this law in 1851 to protect the American shipping industry, stating that the US would be at a disadvantage in this regard compared to other maritime powers that already had similar laws in place.
“Essentially, the provision is as if the ship itself is its own one-ship corporation. So you basically take all the assets of this corporation in one ship and use them to pay the claims,” explains Michael Sturley, one of the experts consulted by Business Insider.
Sturley is a maritime law expert and professor at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas.
He estimates that the probability that Grace Ocean Private Ltd, the company that owns the Dali ship that caused the Baltimore accident, will invoke this law is “somewhere over 99.99%”. The law professor also says that Grace Ocean could thus avoid paying damages that would otherwise amount to billions of dollars.
Compensation paid after the tragedy in Baltimore will depend on the outcome of the investigation
But Sturley and the other two experts in maritime law consulted by BI emphasize that the US judiciary will approve or reject a request by the company in this sense only based on the conclusions of the investigation into the accident that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday.
The Dali crew had sent an emergency message just before the incident, notifying the authorities that they had “lost control of the ship and that a collision with the bridge is possible”. The message made it possible to quickly close the Francis Scott Key Bridge and limit the number of casualties.
The Associated Press notes that the ship, named after the famous painter Salvador Dali, passed an inspection in Chile last June. The vessel was also inspected by the US Coast Guard last September with no problems found.
US authorities also said that before lifting anchor in Baltimore, the ship had undergone a routine engine inspection. While the investigation is still ongoing, one of the few certainties at this time is that the crew lost propulsion while leaving the port of Baltimore.
Two people were rescued from the water after the incident, but US authorities believe the other 6 people missing are dead. All 8 were part of a work crew plugging potholes on the bridge’s road surface, according to US authorities.
The Wall Street Journal reported the other day that part of the investigation is focused on checking the ship’s fuel to see if possible contamination in it led to the initial loss of power.
The case regarding the sinking of the Titanic made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court
As for the damages that Grace Ocean might have to pay, statistics show that “the majority of claims to limit them fail,” Martin Davies, director of the Maritime Law Center at the University’s Faculty of Law, told Business Insider. Tulane.
He says this happens “because, regardless of the circumstances, it is relatively easy for claimants to show the ‘fault or joint liability’ of the company that owns the ship”.
In the case of the Titanic, however, the request of the famous White Star Line company was successful. She managed to limit the amount of damages that could be imputed to her after the 1912 tragedy in the American courts to $92,000, the value of the lifeboats launched during the sinking and recovered by the rescuers.
The case went all the way to the Washington Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the company. But White Star Line eventually paid $664,000 in damages to settle all lawsuits filed against it by survivors and victims’ families.
In the years that followed, however, the White Star Line went into continuous decline and in 1934, amid the Great Global Financial Crisis, it merged with its great rival, the Cunard Company.
