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The Supreme Court dealt a major blow Thursday to four major cruise lines accused of profiting from Cuban property seized during Fidel Castro's communist revolution, reviving lawsuits that could cost the companies hundreds of millions of dollars.
In an 8-1 ruling, the justices sided with Havana Docks Corporation, a U.S. company that once operated docks in Havana before the Cuban government took the property in 1959.
The decision revives more than $440 million in judgments against Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises for using the Havana port during the Obama-era thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that a lower court wrongly dismissed the claims because the cruise companies "used confiscated property to which Havana Docks owns the claim."
The "Empress of the Seas", a Bahamas-flagged vessel owned by the US Royal Caribbean which became the last cruise of a U.S. company to touch the Cuban port following the U.S. sanctions against the island, leaves from Havana, on June 5, 2019. (Dalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The lawsuits stem from the Helms-Burton Act, a 1996 law allowing Americans to sue companies that profit from property seized by Cuba's government after the revolution.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the dissent that her colleagues had misconstrued the statute's text, writing that "what Havana Docks owned was only a property interest allowing it to use those docks for a specified time." Kagan wrote that the decision will "allow plaintiffs to recover for trafficking in property that was not theirs."
A panoramic view of the Malecón with the Carnival Paradise parked at the cruise terminal on June 30, 2017, in Havana, Cuba. (Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images / Getty Images)
For years, U.S. presidents suspended the Helms-Burton Act to avoid clashes with allies and businesses operating in Cuba. The cruise lines had resumed stops in Havana in 2016 after President Barack Obama reopened travel ties with Cuba.
President Donald Trump reversed course in 2019, activating the law and tightening pressure on Cuba's communist regime.
The Norwegian SKY cruise ship docked in Havana on June 4, 2019. (Eliana Aponte/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images)
A federal judge in Miami previously ruled the cruise operators were liable and awarded Havana Docks more than $400 million combined. An appeals court later overturned that ruling before the Supreme Court issued its decision on Thursday.
The case now heads back to the lower courts, where the cruise lines are expected to continue fighting the claims.
The ruling lands amid renewed tensions between Washington and Havana. Just one day earlier, the U.S. announced murder charges against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro tied to the 1996 shooting down of planes flown by Miami-based exiles.
Reuters contributed to this report.
