“By using the Terminal and one of its docks in various ways, Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian committed acts of trafficking” (usufruct), Miami federal magistrate Beth Bloom said in a court brief.
With this decision, the judge sided with the plaintiff, the Havana Docks company, which filed a lawsuit against these four large cruise companies for using the Havana Cruise Port Terminal, also called Sierra Maestra Terminal, and confiscated by the government of Fidel Castro after the triumph of the revolution in 1959.
The plaintiff firm, which operated that terminal until its confiscation, alleges that by using the port facilities the four companies violated Title III of the Helms Burton Act of 1996.
This title, activated by the US Government in 2019, allows US citizens to sue in search of monetary compensation for the usufruct of properties expropriated from their families and that have been used especially by shipping and hotel companies from third countries.
In his brief, filed in court on Monday, Bloom further notes that the four companies engaged in these acts “intentionally and deliberately.”
Where was the “thaw” process?
Havana Docks alleges that with these activities that occurred between 2015 and 2019, the four companies obtained up to 1.1 billion dollars in income and paid 138 million to Cuban government entities.
The firms defended that their cruises to Cuba were framed under the guidelines established by the government Department of the Treasury within the “thaw” process with Cuba established by the Administration of President Barack Obama (2009-2017), but the magistrate rejected those arguments.
He recalled that this was fixed in 12 categories and that they did not include those related to tourism, nor those that could threaten the embargo against Cuba imposed by the US.
Trump reactivated the possibility of opening proceedings for compensation
After the judge’s decision, which thus rejected the motions presented by the four companies to dismiss the lawsuit, the case will continue in a jury trial that will begin in May and in which the financial compensation to the plaintiffs must be determined. .
This judicial process may have implications for the lawsuits that dozens of Cuban-Americans have filed in United States courts seeking compensation for their property expropriated after the triumph of the revolution.
Among the properties object of the demands are ports, airports and hotels of European chains, mainly Spanish.
Trump activated the norm that has allowed these legal processes and that his predecessors, Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, never wanted due to the legal and commercial implications with third countries.
jov (efe, miamiherald)