The owner of the ship that toppled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge appears to be seeking to cap the amount of damages that the company can be forced to pay following the deadly crash.

The Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd. indicated it will file a “limitation of liability” action in federal court Monday, invoking a little-known statute used in maritime law.

The filing itself is not yet available, but a docket in U.S. District Court in Maryland showed the company has initiated an action involving limitation of liability, a key move that maritime lawyers saidwould be likely to take place soon after the disaster.

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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    9 months ago

    Of course! Socialize the losses, privatize the gains…

    It’s the American Way!

    • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      It’s the American Singapore-based Way!
      Our Gov. has for many years been so against the US Workers that they actively protect foreign business’ interests in their effort to appease the obscenely wealthy. So I have no doubt it shall still end up with the US Taxpayers footing the bill. I’ll wait to be shocked, but not that shocked, until a court rules that the City owes for damages to the ship.

    • Supervisor194@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      OK, you’re right and I really hate that paradigm. But didn’t I hear something like these boats being led out of the bay are under the control of local crew (not company crew) until they get to open water? Also something about doing this without a tug escort? I wonder if there is more to this story other than yet another bad corporate actor.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        The ship had 2 local harbor pilots (which are fairly mandatory worldwide as harbors are unique).

        As far as no tug escort my guess is that’s to cut down on costs, either to the shipping companies and/or the harbor … and it’s up to the harbor if a tug is mandatory or not.

        • baru@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          As far as no tug escort

          From what I’ve watched it might not have been safer. This because tugs apparently only can operate such a vessel if it is going really slow. But when it is going slow the vessel is difficult to control. So there’s no easy better option.

          I’m just repeating what I heard on a video from this channel: https://youtube.com/@wgowshipping

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            The tug boats could only be there as an escort in case of an emergency, meaning they’re not necessarily attached to the ship.

            Leaving them out of the equation is a cost-saving practice.

            • baru@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              The tug boats could only be there as an escort in case of an emergency

              The vessel was doing 8 knots. It would have been useless and dangerous according to that channel.

              Leaving them out of the equation is a cost-saving practice.

              If tugs are required then the port should require them instead of relying on shipping companies to do this. You’ve repeated that it is a cost-saving measure but I’ve said twice now that it isn’t automatically helpful to have them. Further, it really is on the port if tugs should be needed to put that into the minimum requirements.

    • baru@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Legal stuff can easily be made to take decades. Meanwhile there’s billions of losses per year that the bridge is down. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s not good for that local economy to wait for courts to decide on things.

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        No but it’s US laws they’re using which is kind of the point. Our system is set up that way.

  • Dagamant@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’m sure the cost is already much higher than they could afford. Between the bridge itself, the cost of diverting shipping and the economic impact of said diversion.

    • Davel23@fedia.io
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      9 months ago

      I’m sure the cost is already much higher than they could afford.

      That’s what insurance is supposed to be for, assuming they had it. Getting the insurance company to actually pay out, that’s a different story entirely.

        • MagicShel@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          Those assholes can fuck right off. I’m sick of rich people gambling big and fucking me over win or lose. If every rich person can afford one fewer yacht because they are held accountable when they gamble and lose, they would lose nothing of value.

    • Ragnarok314159
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      9 months ago

      Then they get to liquidate some assets to pay for the replacement costs.

      The crew looks like they went to the extreme to avoid the collision, contacting as many authorities as possible to try to save human lives. I feel bad for them because they did everything possible and it still ended in a disaster.

      It wasn’t their fault the boat was ill maintained and lost power at a critical moment. The company can bear the cost.

    • CptOblivius@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Don’t forget the workers lost as well. Not sure if that would have to go through different civil suits.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Don’t forget the workers lost as well. Not sure if that would have to go through different civil suits.

        According to my reading of the article, assuming the limit is upheld, the worker’s families would be getting the money that comes out of this. The bridge and port would be the losers.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        They did the hiring and should have done the due diligence. If corporations want to be considered people than they can’t really claim that their limbs were the ones responsible for breaking something, not them.

        An example from my childhood: two security guards at work at the Aryan Nation compound beat the shit out of a minority. The Aryan Nation was found liable and their property was seized to cover their expenses and it was used for fire fighting practice.

  • mommykink@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I said this exact thing was going to happen like three days ago and yall downvoted me to hell

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I said this exact thing was going to happen like three days ago and yall downvoted me to hell

      Because you called it out here I wanted to see what you said so I went back through your comments to find out. Unless you can point out something from your prior posts to suggest otherwise, I’m not seeing where you said this exact thing would happen.

      Further, your posts I saw on the topic that look like they got downvoted to hell so far are still wrong.

      It looks like others in those threads are still right against the posts I saw of yours on the topic. From my reading the downvotes were justified.

      • mommykink@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        My guy, if you think that the “decision” of this filing wasn’t made the second that the crash happened, I don’t know what to tell you. The US government exists to protect the wealthy (around the globe, as long as they play nice), and any damage done by the wealthy, private organizations is subsidized with public funds.

        I would love to be proven wrong.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I would love to be proven wrong.

          Well I suppose I can accommodate you there. In your post in this thread you said “this exact thing was going to happen”. What you said those days ago was that Maersk wouldn’t be held liable. This article is referring to an attempt by the ship owner Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd and not Maersk. Its also not letting Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd off the hook for all of the costs, although that’s what they’d certainly like.

          So, no, what you said days ago isn’t exactly what is happening here. Nothing in this article is about liability to whom you said it would be in your other thread, its also not letting anyone off the hook yet.

          My guy, if you think that the “decision” of this filing wasn’t made the second that the crash happened

          Thats some nice goalpost moving, but I’m not falling for it. That is irrelevant to what you said prior.

        • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          You don’t even seem to understand the ownership structure of this ship. Maersk did not own, operate, crew, or maintain this vessel. It was chartered, which means that Maersk just paid for the cargo space and these other companies (grace ocean private and synergy marine) actually handled all of the potentially problematic aspects behind the incident (poor maintenance, crew factors, whatever it may be).

          So not only are you claiming to be right before the dust has settled, but your initial statement was nonsense from the start.