Carnival Cruise Lines (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Carnival Corp.'s hopes of sinking litigation over its use of property seized by the Cuban government have been dashed following orders by two federal judges.

District Judge Beth Bloom denied the cruise line's motion to dismiss the complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida by the Havana Docks Corp. on Tuesday. Similarly, Senior District Judge James Lawrence King issued an order on Monday rejecting Carnival's argument to toss a lawsuit brought against the company by Miami surgeon Javier Garcia-Bengochea.

Both cases concern Carnival's use of the Port of Santiago, where the plaintiffs claim to have owned commercial property that was expropriated by the state of Cuba following the island's communist revolution. The lawsuits were filed after the Trump administration allowed the suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act to lapse on May 2. The move empowered U.S. citizens to pursue litigation against entities that purportedly traffic in Cuban property that had been privately owned prior to the revolution.

Colson Hicks Eidson attorneys representing the plaintiffs in both lawsuits declined to comment on Bloom and King's findings.

Carnival argued for the dismissal of Garcia-Bengochea and Havana Docks' complaints on the grounds that its use of the waterfront property constituted "lawful travel", thus immunising the company from Helms-Burton claims. The cruise line also purported the passage of its ships through the port was "incident to lawful travel to Cuba" and "necessary to the conduct of such travel".

Read Bloom's order:

Additionally, the company challenged the plaintiffs' "direct interest" and claims of ownership over the properties in question. As noted by Bloom, Carnival moved for the dismissal of Havana Docks' case, "because plaintiff did not have a property interest in the subject property at the time Carnival was alleged to have committed the trafficking".

Bloom and King both rejected Carnival's argument for dismissal through exemption under the lawful travel provision.

"Based on the text and structure of Helms-Burton, the court holds that the lawful travel exception is an affirmative defence to trafficking that must be established by Carnival, not negated by plaintiff," King wrote.

Bloom's ruling held that Helms-Burton "does not expressly make any distinction whether such trafficking needs to occur while a party holds a property interest in the property at issue".

"To this extent, the court agrees with the plaintiff that the defendant incorrectly conflates a  claim to a property and a property interest," the judge wrote. "Accordingly, the court finds that the complaint sufficiently alleges that the plaintiff owns a claim to the subject property."

Roger Frizzell, Carnival's chief communications officer, maintained the company's position that it acted within U.S. law, in a statement to the Daily Business Review.

"We believe that we operated within the approved government process regarding Cuba," Frizzell said. "We look forward to proving the merits of our case."

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