Baltimore company files proposed class-action claim in Key Bridge collapse

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A Baltimore publishing company has filed a proposed class-action claim on behalf of businesses affected by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse last month.

If approved, the claim says, the class could end up including “tens of thousands of businesses” that were harmed when a massive container ship struck the Key Bridge on the early morning of March 26, sending the span tumbling into the Patapsco River below.

The company behind the claim is American Publishing LLC, which produces the United States Cybersecurity Magazine and the Armed Forces Directory, an informational publication distributed at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade, according to court papers.

The company is owned by Karen and Charles Austin, who say they saw a decline in sales after the bridge collapse.

The couple was “positioned to continue their business operations undisturbed, yet the destruction of the Key Bridge directly undermined this stability, causing ongoing significant revenue losses,” according to the class-action claim. “Claimants’ income declined 84% when comparing April 2023 to April 2024. There was no other reason for this dramatic loss of income other than the destruction of the Key Bridge.”

A judge will have to decide whether to certify the proposed class.

The new court papers claim that the owner and manager of the ship that caused the Key Bridge collapse should not be allowed to limit their liability in the crash. The two companies filed a limitation of liability action just days after the disaster, asking to cap the amount of damages they could be required to pay at about $43 million.

Baltimore’s Key Bridge destroyed: Everything you need to know

“Essentially, the negligence of the (companies) not only led to the physical destruction of the Key Bridge but also precipitated a broader economic shutdown in Baltimore, severely affecting local business owners like Claimants,” wrote one of the lawyers for the publisher, Roy L. Mason.

Todd Lochner, an admiralty lawyer based in Annapolis, is also representing American Publishing.

The ship that caused the Key Bridge collapse, the Dali, is owned by a Singaporean company called Grace Ocean Private Limited and managed by Synergy Marine Pte. Ltd. The companies asked to limit their liability under an 1851 law that was famously invoked after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

If successful, the action would allow the companies to limit their liability to the value of the Dali and its cargo. The 95,000-ton vessel remains stuck in the Patapsco River. It reportedly suffered a power failure as it was leaving the Port of Baltimore and struck one of the Key Bridge’s support piers, causing the bridge to collapse. The crash killed six members of a construction crew who were working on the bridge at the time.

“Thousands of ships have made the same journey the Dali made that fateful day when the Key Bridge was struck without incident,” said Mason, who is of counsel for the Washington, D.C., law firm Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman. “There were major red flags that the Dali never should have left port that day, which makes the bridge collapse — and the damage to Mr. and Mrs. Austin’s business — entirely preventable.”

The city of Baltimore has also filed a claim and asked a federal judge to reject the companies’ request to limit their liability.