Supreme Court Weighs in 8-1 on Cuba-Tied Lawsuit

The Supreme Court determined that a U.S.-based company—Havana Docks—can recover damages from four major cruise lines that used its docks previously confiscated by the Cuban government.

Havana Docks, a U.S. company, built docks in Havana’s port before the Cuban Revolution. The Castro regime revoked the company’s legal right to the docks, and the company later sued cruise lines that used the docks, claiming they were liable for trafficking in confiscated property. The cruise lines argued that the company’s legal right to the docks would have expired by then, regardless of confiscation.

In an 8-1 ruling issued on Thursday, Justice Clarence Thomas found that Havana Docks “did not have to prove that the cruise lines interfered with a property interest that would have existed in the counterfactual scenario in which the Cuban government did not confiscate it.”

“The cruise lines’ use of the docks is sufficient to establish that they used ‘property which was confiscated by the Cuban Government’,” Thomas wrote.

Justice Elena Kagan dissented.

In 2019, the docks company sued four cruise companies that used the confiscated docks from 2016 through 2019. The companies were Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, and MSC Cruises.

The companies argued they followed the U.S. government’s lead on reopening travel to Cuba as part of the Obama administration’s overtures to the island nation.

Thursday’s ruling reverses an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that determined the company could not recover damages. Before that, a lower court found the cruise companies liable for $440 million.

The question before the court was whether a plaintiff must establish a present-day property interest if the assets in question were not monetized.