Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse: Victim's family to enter settlement talks with Dali owners

Luke Parker, Baltimore Sun on Oct 13, 2025

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BALTIMORE — About a year and a half after a container ship struck and destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, a settlement could be on the horizon between the vessel’s owners and operators and at least one victim’s family.

Federal court records show a mutually requested settlement conference has been scheduled for Nov. 3 between the shipping companies and the family of Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, a 26-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who lived in Dundalk.

Castillo Cabrera was one of seven men repairing potholes on the bridge when its central arch crumbled and spilled into the water. Six of those workers were killed.

It was not clear whether the families of the other victims, as well as the worker and a bridge inspector who survived the collapse, were close to settlements, or why Castillo Cabrera’s claim was in a different position.

Several attorneys representing all of the crew members’ families, as well as a spokesperson for Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine, did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

After the Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River in March 2024, crippling one of the United States’ busiest channels, dozens of lawsuits were filed against the owners and managers of the Dali, the Singaporean container ship that drifted off course during a reported power outage.

Since getting tangled in that web of litigation, the Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Ltd. companies have worked to stave off tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in damages to an assortment of parties, including several governments and regional businesses.

The Dali-vested companies have sought to limit their liability to the declared $43.7 million value of the damaged ship and its cargo — substantially lower sums than the $102 million settlement they reached with the U.S. Justice Department last October and the estimated $1.7 billion price tag placed on building a new bridge.

A trial establishing liability is expected to take place next year, which could create a claims pool worth billions of dollars.

But either way, because the payout wouldn’t look much different for the victims, an early settlement makes sense, according to Allen Black, a Washington-based attorney who specializes in maritime law.

Getting money faster to those who lost someone or were injured in the collapse is “good lawyering” on both sides, Black said.

“They want to reasonably get that money,” Black said of the victims. “It’s not that you forget your loved one, but life goes on and the families’ needs continue.”

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