Norwegian Breakaway in Saint Petersburg (Wikipedia Commons)
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
A Federal judge ordered that Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba’s government confiscated in 1960. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom made the ruling last Friday in the case ‘Havana Docks Corporation v. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd.’ (Case No. 19-cv-21724) in United States District Court Southern District of Florida. The Trump administration allowed former owners of commercial property expropriated by Cuba to sue companies and the Cuban government for using or “trafficking” in those confiscated holdings. Havana Docks contends it holds a US-certified claim to a concession for a terminal and piers that were nationalized after the 1959 Cuban revolution. In 2019, Havana Docks sued Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings under Title III of the Helms-Burton or Libertad Act. In March 2022 Judge Bloom ruled that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp. Havana Docks, in addition to Norwegian Cruise Line, also sued Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Group, MSC Cruises, seeking approximately $440 million in damages against the cruise lines. The US judge found the four cruise giants engaged in prohibited tourism to Cuba — not the lawful people-to-people travel allowed — and trafficked in stolen property by using Havana’s cruise facilities. The Court decision on Friday against Norwegian Cruise stated: “Plaintiff is awarded $109,848,747.87 in damages.” It also stated that Norwegian should pay an additional $3 million in legal fees and costs.
The companies’ cruises to Cuba “constituted tourist activities and not proper people-to-people activities, paying millions of dollars to the Cuban Government to engage in impermissible travel,” -Judge Bloom
In their collective motion for summary judgment, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC and NCLH argued that they used the Cuba terminal as a necessary part of lawful travel — that they were providing the condoned educational ‘people-to-people’ trips — and there was no evidence they acted with the requisite knowledge and intent of trafficking. Havana Docks is asking for $109,671,180.90 from each cruise company plus additional varying amounts for attorneys’ fees and court costs that total nearly $11.7 million. The cruise lines argue that Havana Docks demand is excessive and that any damages should be ‘substantially’ less than the $439 million.
President Obama Detente With Havana Opened Door for U.S. Cruise Ships To Travel to Cuba
U.S. cruise ships in 2016 began traveling to Cuba for the first time in decades following a detente negotiated by former President Barack Obama that eased some provisions of a U.S. embargo in place since the Cold War. Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente in December 2014. But the Trump administration in 2019 halted all such U.S. cruises in an effort to pressure Cuba over its support for Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and threatened Havana with a crippling economic embargo.
Carnival Cruise First Company Sued under Trump Cuba Helms-Burton Act
Carnival Corporation’s Fathom Granted Approval by Cuba to Cruise from U.S. to Cuba (PRNewsFoto/Carnival Corporation & plc)
Carnival Cruise become the first company sued in 2019 under the Trump Administration’s new policy change allowing lawsuits against seized Cuban property. The Trump administration activated, effective May 2, 2019, Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD). Since then, lawsuits will be allowed in American courts against Cuban companies using property seized during the 1959 revolution. The cruise lines took the position that their ship calls at the Havana facilities did not qualify as trafficking in stolen property. They argued they had to use the Havana cruise terminal to engage in educational “people-to-people” travel for American passengers that is permitted under the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control license.
Havana Docks is owned by Mickael Behn, the grandson of William C. Behn, an American who owned three docks that were confiscated the Cuban government in 1960. Havana Docks Corp. argues that: “One of the Libertad Act’s purposes was to protect United States nationals against confiscatory takings and the wrongful trafficking in property confiscated by the Castro Regime.”
