Bridge Insurer Settles With Dali Ship Owners for $350 Million

A $350 million insurance settlement reached Thursday in Judge James Bredar's federal courtroom resolved one major financial claim against the Dali's Singapore-based owners, but left more than 50 other parties - port businesses, contractors, and families of six dead workers among them - waiting on a June 1 trial that could cap all their combined recovery at just $43.6 million.

ACE American Insurance Company, which had paid $350 million to the State of Maryland within two months of the March 26, 2024 Key Bridge collapse, announced the settlement with Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine PTE Ltd., the owner and manager of the 984-foot container ship Dali. ACE's attorney, Lawrence F. Walker, told Bredar the terms were "strictly confidential." The reported figure matches dollar-for-dollar what ACE had already paid out to Maryland.

For truckers, shipping companies, and port-dependent businesses that absorbed losses during the port closure, estimated to cost up to $15 million per day, the settlement is largely a bookkeeping event between insurers and shipowners. The legal question that determines actual recovery for remaining claimants goes before Bredar on June 1 in Phase 1 of the civil bench trial.

The dispute at the center of that trial: days after the bridge fell, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine invoked the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, an admiralty statute sometimes called the Titanic Law, arguing their total exposure should be capped at $43.6 million, the stipulated value of the Dali and its cargo at the time of the collision. If Bredar upholds the cap, every remaining claimant splits that pool. If he rejects it, the defendants face exposure potentially running into the billions. Wrongful death claims alone were estimated between $350 million and $700 million.

Port activities ordinarily generate roughly $3.3 billion in personal income and nearly $400 million in state tax revenues annually. Governor Wes Moore called the collapse a "global crisis" affecting more than 8,000 jobs. And the rebuild price tag has ballooned: original estimates of roughly $2 billion with a 2028 opening have been revised to between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, with completion now projected for late 2030. The American Relief Act of 2025 provides a federal funding backstop if litigation recoveries fall short, giving Maryland taxpayers a direct financial stake in Bredar's Phase 1 ruling.

The ACE settlement is the second major financial resolution in the case. In October 2024, Bredar approved a $101.98 million settlement between Grace Ocean, Synergy Marine, and the U.S. Department of Justice to cover federal cleanup costs, including removing 50,000 tons of concrete and steel from the Patapsco River to reopen the shipping channel.

The six construction workers killed when the Dali struck Pier 17 at 1:25 a.m. were filling potholes on the bridge roadway: Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Carlos Daniel Hernandez Estrella, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, Jose Mynor Lopez, and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval. The family of Dorlian Castillo Cabrera was in settlement discussions as of late 2025. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, whose agency spent 20 months investigating, attributed the collapse to a loose wire connection that caused the Dali to lose power twice, the second time within 100 feet of the bridge. "This tragedy should have never occurred. Lives should have never been lost... this was preventable," she told WYPR.

A federal criminal investigation remains open, and the Dali's crew members have been required to stay in Baltimore pending its conclusion.