Maryland sued the owners and managers of the freighter Dali over the Key Bridge accident.

The state of Maryland is suing the owners and managers of the Dali freighter, which collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River and killing six construction workers.

The state claims that the government and the people of Maryland suffered tremendous losses from the bridge collapse caused by the carelessness and negligence of Dali’s crew, owners, and managers.

“A bridge was destroyed. A port was closed. A community was devastated. Six Marylanders lost their lives, and the lives of their families were irreparably altered.” The poorest taxpayers were affected by the gross negligence of the ship’s owners and operators. ”

But Brown added that this injustice—making Marylanders pay for this tragedy—cannot and will not continue.

With the lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday morning, Maryland joined many groups seeking financial damages from the ship’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Limited, and its management company, Synergy Marine Group.

Brown and Gov. Wes Moore, both Democrats, issued a news release stating that the state’s economy and people suffered and that the two companies should pay.

The “traumatic impact” of the action on the state, its residents, the environment, and the economy cannot be overstated, state prosecutors wrote in the filing, nearly six months after the deadly accident.

“The court must hold the responsible parties accountable for their ‘reckless conduct, negligence, mismanagement, and incompetence,’” the filing said. ”

Earlier this year, Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine filed suit in federal court seeking to limit their exposure to the disaster to $43.67 million, which represents the estimated value of the vessel and its cargo.

Brown said the court should reject the companies’ efforts to limit their liability under 19th-century cabotage laws. He said both companies are large multinationals with the resources to pay and be held accountable for Dali’s defects that led to the accident.

“After gross negligence and recklessness, they quickly ran to court to limit their liability under laws passed 150 years ago when there were wooden ships and crowded ports,” Brown said. ”

Brown said the state would prove the companies “knew or should have known” that Dali was unseaworthy.

Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for Synergy Marine and Grace Ocean Private, said in a statement Tuesday that the state’s filing was expected given Tuesday’s deadline to file claims in the case.

“The owner and manager will not comment further on the substance of any claim at this time, but we look forward to the day things are clarified in court,” he said. ”

The state is the latest party to file a claim in the case, joining the Baltimore government, the families of the dead construction workers, some companies that say they are affected, and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging negligence and mismanagement that made the vessel unseaworthy.

Baltimore County also filed a claim on Tuesday, detailing the resources it used to respond and the damage to its economy, environment, and transportation system.

The state asked the court to reject Daley’s owners and managers’ request to limit their liability and award the state a large amount of damages to compensate for direct and indirect losses caused by the accident.

The state did not propose a specific amount of damages it wanted. Instead, it provided a long list of economic losses, starting with the cost of rebuilding the Key Bridge – previously estimated at $2 billion.

Other losses the state is seeking compensation for include the cost of state agencies responding to the bridge collapse, lost toll revenue, damage to rivers and wetlands, erosion of roads that now carry extra traffic, punitive damages, and more.

The state said in the filing that not only did Dali’s owners and managers allow an unseaworthy vessel to leave the Port of Baltimore on March 26, but the bridge collision and collapse also resulted in the illegal discharge of oil and other pollutants and the vessel became an illegal obstruction of the waterway by being stuck in the river.

“Please hear me loud and clear: What happened in the early morning of March 26 should never have happened,” Moore said. “A bridge used by thousands of vehicles daily should still be here by now, and a major thoroughfare for the Port of Baltimore that helps move billions of dollars in cargo each year should still be here by now.” It should all be here by now. ”

Many of the state’s arguments are similar to those of a lawsuit filed last week by the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawsuit outlines a series of shortcuts and workarounds that prevented Daley and her crew from safely launching the ship into the Chesapeake Bay.

The state’s lawsuit alleges that Daley lost power twice while docked before leaving Baltimore and failed to notify authorities of the outages as required.

The state wrote that at midnight on March 26, after the Daley abandoned her berth, she lost power again due to a loose switchboard connection, resulting in a loss of propulsion and steering. After a brief flicker of power, it shut off again.

“Deficiencies in the DALI equipment that resulted in frequent power outages also impaired the vessel’s ability to restore power and caused the vessel’s basic navigation and safety functions to fail,” the state wrote. ”

The ship’s bay pilot, guiding it through the complex channel, ordered Dali’s crew to activate the bow thrusters to move away from the bridge but was told the ship was “out of service,” the state wrote. The state wrote that the pilot’s order to release the anchor was aborted because it was not ready to release.

The state wrote, unable to steer or slow the ship, it struck Key Bridge.

“Due to the mismanagement, disinterest and/or incompetence of DALI’s owners and operators, many of the vessel’s backup systems were removed, inoperable and/or intentionally bypassed,” the state’s attorneys wrote.

Earlier this year, the state hired several private law firms to assist with the case because it was outside the expertise of attorneys in the District Attorney’s Office. The private law firms will receive a percentage of the state’s revenue.

While the lawsuit is ongoing, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI are still investigating. On Saturday, FBI agents and Coast Guard officials boarded a ship also operated by Synergy Marine in Baltimore but did not disclose the purpose of the operation aboard the Maersk Saltoro, saying only that it was part of the investigation.

Efforts continue to get Congress to accept President Joe Biden’s promise that the federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge. Moore said more than 125 members of Congress have been contacted, and he believes they believe the bridge is “more important than politics” and will receive funding.