The Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for the use of a port in Havana that the government of Cuba confiscated from their owners in 1960, a court judge ruled Friday. USAa milestone in the application of the Helms–Burton Act for Cuban-Americans seeking compensation for seizures of their businesses by the Cuban government after 1959.
The decision by US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her ruling in March that use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Havana Docks Corp.registered in Delaware.
The judge ordered four cruise companies to pay nearly $440 million as part of various lawsuits filed more than three years ago, in which they accuse the shipping companies of doing business with expropriated assets in Cuba after the Cuban revolution in 1959, in this case docks.
The parent companies of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, based in Miami, and MSC, were sued by US citizens under the so-called Title III of the Helms-Burton Act seeking compensation for the usufruct of properties that belonged to their families on the island.
“An award of just over $100 million per defendant is certainly reasonable,” the Miami judge said in her ruling, dated December 30.
It added that “a lesser award, as defendants suggest, would not effectively serve a deterrent purpose, as a lesser award could possibly be seen simply as a cost of doing business.”
Title III had been in effect since the enactment of the Helms-Burton or “Freedom” Act in 1996 until the In May 2019, then-President Donald Trump activated it. as part of his heavy-handed policy towards Cuba.
The Helms-Burton Act, as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 is known, is a law approved to tighten the United States embargo against Cuba.
Title III of that regulation authorizes United States citizens to sue in US courts any national or foreign company that benefits from properties in Cuba that belonged to them or their families and were confiscated after 1959.
In the case of cruise ships, which are expected to appeal the ruling, it refers to the docks in the Havana port that belonged to the firm Havana Docks Corporation.
At least 72 Cuban-Americans have filed lawsuits in US courts seeking compensation for the use of expropriated assets in Cuba.
It is mainly about hotels, mostly European chains, especially Spanishyes, or of airlines that use the Jose Marti International Airport, that operate or have operated in nationalized properties.
It may interest you:
– Helms Burton Law: the multi-million dollar lawsuits of Cubans in the United States against foreign companies in Cuba
– Helms Burton: how Washington will tighten the embargo on Cuba with all the provisions of this law
– The United States will allow lawsuits for properties of its citizens confiscated in Cuba
Source: La Opinion
