Carnival Corporation’s Fathom Granted Approval by Cuba to Cruise from U.S. to Cuba (PRNewsFoto/Carnival Corporation & plc) Nearly 1 Million people took a cruise into Cuba in 2018 aboard ships operated by 17 different companies including Carnival.

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

A U.S. Federal judge  Monday dismissed a ‘Helms-Burton’ lawsuit against the cruise company Carnival for doing business with Cuba.  The judge in the Southern District of Florida Miami Division threw out the lawsuit filed in 2019 by Cuban-American Javier Garcia-Bengochea against the cruise company Carnival for using properties confiscated in the port of Santiago de Cuba six decades ago.  Judge James Lawrence King dismissed Garcia-Bengochea’s claim for compensation, ruling that his petition did not meet the requirements of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.  Judge King found the complainant does not have the right to claim, since the properties he refers to as his did not belong to him at the time they were nationalized.

Carnival Cruise become the first company sued under the Trump Administration’s new policy change allowing lawsuits against seized Cuban property. The Trump administration announced last year it is allowing former owners of commercial property expropriated by Cuba to sue companies and the Cuban government for using or “trafficking” in those confiscated holdings. The Trump administration activated,  effective today May 2, 2019,  Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD).   It allowed lawsuits in American courts against Cuban companies using property seized during the 1959 revolution. CARNIVAL,  the Miami-based cruising conglomerate,  was sued in federal court by Mickael Behn and Javier Garcia-Bengochea, both of whom hold claims certified by the federal government for assets confiscated shortly after the Cuban Revolution.  Behn and Garcia-Bengochea filed their claims on the first day possible after Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to fully enact a provision under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act — or LIBERTAD Act — allowing U.S. nationals and naturalized Cubans to seek damages for property seized by Cuba’s communist government.  Bengochea , a neurosurgeon from Jacksonville, Florida, claimed that he had commercial oceanfront property rights that have been used by Carnival since 2016. 

EXCERPTS: 

“Carnival attaches two exhibits to its pleading to show that Plaintiff inherited the claim (if at all1) under a will executed in January 2000 by his cousin Desiderio Parreño, a Costa Rican national (see DE 52-1 at 4), who had previously inherited the certified claim from Albert Parreño (see DE 52-2 at 3).  Carnival now moves for judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c), arguing that (1) the bequest from Desiderio to Plaintiff was ineffective under Costa Rican law; and (2) Plaintiff did not acquire the claim until January 2000 at the earliest, and thus after the March 1996 cutoff under the Act. See Mot., DE 54.”

“Here, Plaintiff does not dispute that Desiderio Parreño (a Costa Rican national) attempted to transfer his claim under his will to Plaintiff (a U.S. national) after Helms-Burton was enacted on March 12, 1996. As a non-U.S. national, Desiderio had no ability to bring suit under Helms-Burton himself, so transferring his claim to Plaintiff would enable Plaintiff to take advantage of the Helms-Burton remedy. But this appears to be the very thing Congress intended to eliminate by adding § 6082(a)(4)(B) to the Act. Thus, allowing Plaintiff to maintain this suit would frustrate Congress’s stated purpose. As a result, the Court finds that this action is barred under § 6082(a)(4)(B), and that Carnival is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

Legal experts say the  decision in favor of Carnival opens the way for favorable ruling for the other similar cases in the litigation process against other cruise lines.  The first of the suits are against Carnival Cruise Lines  — relating to confiscated docks it uses to bring passengers into the island nation. The Cuban government confiscated the docks from the Havana Docks Corporation and La Marítima in the 1960s. 

A lawyer for Carnival, George Fowler, told the newspaper El Nuevo Herald last year that the Helms-Burton law shields commercial activities related to authorized travel to Cuba from compensation claims, and added that Carnival and other cruise lines have Treasury Department licenses.  “The law is clear: If the trip was allowed, the Helms-Burton does not apply,” Mr. Fowler, who worked on the 1996 legislation, told the paper. “It was not the intention of the Helms-Burton law to go after American companies with legal business in Cuba. They can try it, but I’ve been here for 40 years, and I tell them: Good luck.” 

European Union Warns Of Legal Action Against U.S. Over Cuba Property Claims

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  The Habana Libre Hotel, located in the Vedado section of Havana, used to be the American-owned  Havana Hilton before Fidel Castro came to power and confiscated it along with other US properties in Cuba. The hotel, currently managed by Spain’s Melia chain,  could become a target of U.S. litigation.

Brussels Vows To Protect The Interests Of EU Companies Doing Business In Cuba.  E.U.  calls for the end of the U.S. Embargo against Cuba, and the Helms-Burton Act. 

“The decision by the United States to renege on its longstanding commitment to waive Title III of the Helms-Burton (LIBERTAD) Act is regrettable, and will have an important impact on legitimate EU and Canadian economic operators in Cuba. The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law. “

-Joint statement by High Representative / Vice President Federica Moghernini, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Chrystia Freeland, Apri. 17, 2019, Brussels.