© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings cruise ship Marina arrives on the Havana bay, Cuba March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Picture/File Picture
By Brian Ellsworth
MIAMI (Reuters) – Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:) should pay $110 million in damages to be used of a port that Cuba’s authorities confiscated in 1960, a U.S. choose dominated on Friday, a milestone for Cuban-People in search of compensation for Chilly-Battle period asset seizures.
The choice by U.S. District Choose Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the usage of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp.
“Judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiff Havana Docks Company and in opposition to Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd,” reads the choice.
“Plaintiff is awarded $109,848,747.87 in damages,” it says, including that Norwegian must also pay an extra $3 million in authorized charges and prices.
Norwegian Cruise Line didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has harshly criticized the Helms-Burton Act, describing it as an extra-territorial violation of worldwide legislation.
Havana Docks had additionally sued cruise strains Carnival (NYSE:), Royal Caribbean (NYSE:) and MSC beneath the Helms-Burton Act, which permits U.S. nationals to sue over use of property seized in Cuba after 1959.
The ruling might gas extra lawsuits by Cuban exiles pursuing claims, which based on one estimate are price $2 billion, over asset seizures beneath late Cuban chief Fidel Castro.
It might additionally function a reminder to multinational corporations of the problems that may include doing enterprise in Cuba.
U.S. cruise ships in 2016 started touring to Cuba for the primary time in a long time following a detente negotiated by former President Barack Obama that eased some provisions of a U.S. embargo in place for the reason that Chilly Battle.
However the Trump administration in 2019 ordered a halt to all such cruises amid efforts to stress Cuba over its help for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an ideological adversary of Washington.
The Trump administration additionally allowed U.S. residents to sue third events for utilizing property seized by Cuban authorities, a provision of the Helms-Burton Act that had been waived by each earlier president for the reason that legislation’s 1996 passage.
Havana Docks says Cuba, which has been topic to a decades-old U.S. commerce embargo, by no means compensated it for the takeover of the property.
It sued the 4 cruise strains in 2019 within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of Florida. Bloom in March held that the businesses had been accountable for damages beneath the Helms-Burton Act, often known as the Libertad Act.
Based on the U.S.-Cuba Commerce and Financial Council, a non-profit that gives data on relations between the 2 nations, the 5,913 licensed claims for property seized in Cuba signify practically $2 billion in legal responsibility.
Forty-four lawsuits have been filed beneath Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the group says.
“For these present plaintiffs of Cuban descent, (the choice) will give them a second of satisfaction,” mentioned John Kavulich, the group’s president. “It will give them a second to say ‘You possibly can run however you may’t conceal,'” mentioned Kavulich.
