{"id":29,"date":"2026-05-24T15:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T15:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=29"},"modified":"2026-05-24T15:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T15:41:43","slug":"court-rules-against-cruise-lines-in-cuban-confiscation-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=29","title":{"rendered":"Court rules against cruise lines in Cuban confiscation case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

More than 65 years after the confiscation by Cuba\u2019s communist government of assets owned by U.S. businesses there, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a U.S. business that is seeking to recover for its losses under a 1996 law that targets the Cuban regime. By a vote of 8-1, in Havana Docks Corporation v. Royal Caribbean Cruises<\/em> that Havana Docks, a U.S. company that before 1960 had owned a right to use and operate the docks in the port of Havana, is potentially entitled to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for the use of the port by cruise lines between 2016 and 2019, even if the company\u2019s control of the docks would have expired in 2004.<\/p>\n

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The case hinged on the\u00a0Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, a law passed by Congress in 1996 that is also known as the LIBERTAD Act or as the Helms-Burton Act (after its sponsors). One provision of the law allows U.S. nationals to bring lawsuits in federal court against anyone who \u201ctraffics in property which was confiscated by the Cuban Government on or after January 1, 1959,\u201d while another gives the president the power to suspend the right to bring a lawsuit when he believes that doing so is \u201cnecessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba.\u201d From 1996 until 2019, when President Donald Trump declined to renew the suspension, U.S. presidents repeatedly suspended the right to bring a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

After Trump opted not to renew the suspension, Havana Docks filed a lawsuit in Florida against four cruise lines \u2013 Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival, and MSC. Havana Docks contended that between 2016 and June 2019 the cruise lines had trafficked in property that had belonged to Havana Docks \u2013 the company\u2019s right to use and operate the Havana Cruise Port Terminal, which the Cuban government confiscated in 1960.<\/p>\n

A federal district judge in Miami awarded Havana Docks more than $400 million. The cruise lines subsequently appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which \u2013 by a vote of 2-1 \u2013 reversed.<\/p>\n

Havana Docks then came to the Supreme Court, which on Thursday threw out the 11th Circuit\u2019s decision and sent the case back to the lower courts.<\/p>\n

Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas explained that the key question in the case is whether, for purposes of the Helms-Burton Act, the \u201cproperty which was confiscated by the Cuban Government\u201d was Havana Docks\u2019 right to use the docks (that is, the company\u2019s \u201cproperty interest in the docks\u201d), or whether it was the docks themselves.<\/p>\n

The answer to that question, Thomas continued, is that the \u201cproperty which was confiscated\u201d can refer both to \u201cthe plaintiff\u2019s interest in that property\u201d and, more broadly, to the physical property itself \u2013 such as the docks in this case. Therefore, Thomas wrote, \u201cconfiscated property\u201d such as the docks \u201cis, as it were, tainted\u2014off limits\u2014such that anyone who uses the property can be liable to those who had an interest in the tainted property.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Applying that analysis to the case before him, Thomas reasoned that \u201cthe Cuban Government seized control of \u2018property\u2019\u2014the docks that Havana Docks built\u2014in 1960. At that point, the docks were tainted as confiscated property, \u2026 \u2018the use of\u2019 which the United States sought to \u2018deter\u2019\u201d with the Helms-Burton Act. \u201cThe cruise lines later used the confiscated docks\u2014property to which Havana Docks owns a certified claim\u2014when they transported nearly a million passengers to Cuba between 2016 and 2019. The Court of Appeals therefore erred in concluding that Havana Docks failed to establish these requirements for\u201d liability under the Helms-Burton Act.<\/p>\n

The majority sent the case back to the lower court for it to consider, among other things, the cruise lines\u2019 other defenses against liability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a concurring opinion that Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined. She flagged \u201ctwo issues\u201d that the majority did not address but that, in her view, \u201craise significant concerns\u201d when the case returns to the lower court or in similar cases brought under the Helms-Burton Act.<\/p>\n

First, Sotomayor argued, Havana Docks\u2019 interpretation of the Helms-Burton Act \u201ccould allow it to recover a potentially unlimited amount of money from an unlimited number of people who use the confiscated docks at issue.\u201d Although Havana Docks\u2019 claim for its loss of its interest in the docks was certified as $9 million in 1960, Sotomayor noted, it could \u201crecover millions, if not billions, of dollars over and over again, so long as anyone continues to make any commercial use of the docks. It is unlikely,\u201d Sotomayor posited, \u201cthat Congress intended for someone who suffered a finite loss to reap infinite recoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, Sotomayor questioned whether the cruise lines might be shielded from liability under an exception to the Helms-Burton Act for \u201ctransactions and uses of property\u201d related to legal travel to Cuba. \u201cIndeed,\u201d she observed, \u201cthe Federal Government appears to have previously taken the position that these cruises were lawful and beneficial to both Cuba and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Elena Kagan penned a rare solo dissent. She argued that the docks did not qualify as \u201cproperty which was confiscated by the Cuban government\u201d because the Cuban government, rather than Havana Docks, had always owned them. And Havana Docks\u2019 property interest \u2013 its right to use the docks \u2013 had expired in 2004, she emphasized. \u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d she wrote, \u201cthe Court\u2019s interpretation of\u201d the Helms-Burton Act, \u201ctreats all property interests as if they were perpetual ones.\u201d But in her view, \u201ca plaintiff can recover under\u201d the Helms-Burton Act \u201conly when the defendant traffics in the actual property that was confiscated from the plaintiff. Here,\u201d she concluded, \u201cthat means Havana Docks\u2019 claim should fail, because the cruise lines did not traffic in Havana Docks\u2019 time-limited\u2014and long-ago expired\u2014concession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Court puts off deciding whether to consider $5 million verdict against Trump \u2013 yet again<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 65 years after the confiscation by Cuba\u2019s communist government of assets owned by U.S. businesses there, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a U.S. business that is seeking to recover for its losses under a 1996 law that targets the Cuban regime. By a vote of 8-1, in Havana Docks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion-analysis"],"yoast_head":"\nCourt rules against cruise lines in Cuban confiscation case - American Service Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=29\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court rules against cruise lines in Cuban confiscation case - American Service Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More than 65 years after the confiscation by Cuba\u2019s communist government of assets owned by U.S. businesses there, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a U.S. business that is seeking to recover for its losses under a 1996 law that targets the Cuban regime. 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