Federal Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss in Two Helms-Burton Cases
Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises successfully fended off allegations that they were "trafficking" in property that was expropriated by the Cuban government following the 1959 Cuban revolution.
January 08, 2020 at 01:07 PM
2 minute read
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom has dismissed two Helms-Burton cases filed against Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises in the Southern District of Florida.
Both cases revolved around the cruise line's use of waterfront properties which the plaintiff, Havana Docks Corp., claimed to have owned before their expropriation by Cuba's government following the island's communist revolution.
The court rulings come just six months after Bloom and her colleague, Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, declined to toss two Helms-Burton cases filed against Carnival Corp.
The lawsuits against Norwegian and MSC were filed in August after the Trump administration allowed the suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act to lapse on May 2. The move allowed U.S. citizens to pursue litigation against entities who purportedly traffic in Cuban property that had been privately owned prior to the revolution.
In the opinions, Bloom sided with Norwegian and MSC Cruises, which both argued that since the plaintiff's interest in the dock expired in 2004 — more than a decade before either cruise line began using the ports — the companies did not in fact "traffic" in plaintiff's property.
"If Defendant's alleged activities had taken place between 1960 and 2004, it would have 'trafficked' in Plaintiff's confiscated property under the Act. However, because there is no dispute that Defendant's allegedly unlawful conduct took place beginning in 2017, it did not traffic in Plaintiff's confiscated property," Bloom wrote in the Norwegian opinion.
The rulings do not set precedent for some crucial legal questions, including the specific definition of "trafficking" in the context of Title III of Helms-Burton, which, until last year, had been suspended by successive United States presidents.
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