The US Supreme Court governed Four cruise ships may be sued Thursday over their use of docks in the port of Havana that Cuba’s communist government seized from an American company in 1960, reviving a case that could leave the companies owing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The 8-1 decision favored Havana Docks Corp., which built and operated the docks under a temporary concession granted by the Cuban government. After Fidel Castro seized power, his government confiscated the docks without paying compensation. Between 2016 and 2019, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Carnival Corp. and MSC Cruises sent nearly a million paying passengers to Cuba and used the same docks to load and unload travelers.
Havana Docks sued after the 1996 ruling Cuban Freedom and Democratic Solidarity Actknown as the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. citizens to sue anyone who “trades” in property confiscated from Cuba. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all suspended this right to sue. President Donald Trump allowed the suspension Sequence in May 2019.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the company only had to prove that the cruise ships used seized property – the docks themselves – not that they traded in the expired ownership interest of the Havana Docks. Seized property is “contaminated,” Thomas wrote, “so that anyone who uses the property may be held liable to those who had an interest in it.”
A federal appeals court had thrown out on the grounds that the company’s license would have expired in 2004 anyway, long before the cruises began. The Supreme Court cleared rejected this judgment and remanded the matter for further hearing.
In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the docks were always owned by Cuba, not Havana Docks, which she likened to “a tenant with a lease” that expires in 2004. The cruise ships, she wrote, “were not operating within the scope of Havana Docks’ temporary — and long-expired — concession.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, agreed with the finding, but warned that the reading would allow the company to “repeatedly” seek millions back from anyone who uses the docks. She also questioned whether the cruises fell under an exemption for lawful travel to Cuba.
