Trial in the Key Bridge collapse is set for Monday. But will any eyewitnesses show up?

It’s one of the most consequential maritime disasters in modern American history. But as the long-awaited civil trial over liability in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is set to begin, it’s unclear how many eyewitnesses will actually show up.

Since federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in the case two weeks ago, lawyers for the Singaporean companies that own and operate the vessel that crashed into the bridge have warned that none of their employees will agree to testify in person at the civil trial.

“We have no witnesses who are willing to come to the United States,” William R. Bennett, a lawyer for the companies, said at a court hearing last week.

The trial, scheduled to start Monday at Baltimore’s federal courthouse, will determine whether the companies can cap their liability in the bridge collapse at about $44 million, roughly the value of the container ship Dali and its cargo.

The case just got a little smaller: The relatives of construction workers who died in the bridge collapse settled with the companies this week, an attorney for the group confirmed. Details of the agreements are confidential.

That leaves Baltimore City, Baltimore County and local businesses that suffered financially after the bridge fell as some of the last parties still fighting the companies’ effort to limit their liability. One man who survived the collapse also has a claim pending. Additional settlements are possible before trial.

If the judge rules that liability is “broken,” those parties will be able to file their own lawsuits and potentially win more than the $44 million being offered. Maryland and the U.S. Department of Justice previously settled claims against the companies for about $2.25 billion and $100 million, respectively.

The companies have invoked a statute used in maritime catastrophes for nearly two centuries, including the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

With crew members hesitant to testify, though, the result in the Key Bridge case may be a lengthy civil trial that’s light on witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what happened on the morning of March 26, 2024, when the Dali lost power and took down the Key Bridge, killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the span.

There will still be plenty of testimony to fill what’s expected to be an 18-day trial. Lawyers for both sides plan to call many expert witnesses to offer professional opinions on the complex technical issues at play. The attorneys can also use testimony witnesses offered at earlier depositions.

Calling to the stand the Dali’s crew will be more complicated. Many, including some of the highest-ranking mariners on the ship, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during depositions.

And with the Dali’s operator, Synergy Marine Group, charged criminally, “all of Synergy’s fact witnesses ... have confirmed they will not come to the U.S. to testify,” the company’s lawyers wrote recently.

Synergy asked for the civil trial to be put on hold until the criminal case concludes; its attorneys argued that witnesses might be more comfortable testifying later. Senior U.S. District Judge James Bredar denied that request, finding that Synergy and Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the Dali’s owner, couldn’t guarantee that more witnesses would be available if the civil trial were paused, potentially for years.

Grace Ocean doesn’t face criminal charges, but the companies are working together in the civil case and share a legal team.

With the civil trial set to proceed, it’s likely that there have been conversations with the DOJ about possible immunity agreements for witnesses, said Alexander Giles, a maritime attorney in Baltimore who represents clients in the Key Bridge disaster who have not filed claims against the companies. Giles is not participating in the trial.

Some witnesses are considering testifying over Zoom, though they are hesitant even to do that, according to court filings.

“I imagine the attorneys for the owners and the DOJ are having discussions about whether immunity can be given to certain people to allow them to testify a little more freely,” Giles said.

Employees who are overseas don’t want to come to the U.S. because they fear being detained in Baltimore, like several members of the Dali’s crew who have been stuck here for the past two years. Those crew members, here under an agreement between Synergy and the federal government, include the crew’s senior members — making it unlikely that they will testify voluntarily at the civil trial, Giles said.

Five subpoenas — it’s unclear for whom, since the details are not publicly accessible — have been returned ahead of the trial, court records show. That means there could be some in-person witnesses with direct knowledge of the events central to the trial.

The two sides will focus on whether the Dali’s owner and operator knew there were problems with the ship before it left the Port of Baltimore.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation found that the ship experienced two electrical blackouts before the crash: one caused by a single faulty wire, the second caused by the improper use of a flushing pump instead of standard automatic fuel pumps. The flushing pump did not restart automatically after the first blackout, causing a second loss of power that made it impossible to steer the Dali before it struck the bridge.

Giles said Grace Ocean and Synergy might focus on the wire and blame the flaw on the ship’s manufacturer, Hyundai Heavy Industries, which the companies are suing in Pennsylvania. Hyundai has called the companies’ claims “meritless” in court records and is seeking dismissal.

In the criminal case, Synergy is accused of connecting flushing pumps to generators on at least three vessels since 2020 and of providing false information to investigators. A Synergy employee, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, is accused of removing references to the flushing pump from ship documents.

For much of the civil trial, the two sides will likely talk past each other, Giles said, attributing the cause of the crash to different problems.

Many in the maritime industry believe the outcome of this trial is “a true question mark,” Giles said. “It’s a coin flip.”