Three more cruise lines have been hit with lawsuits under an obscure, 23-year-old US law designed to turn the screws on Cuba, with a fourth suit being allowed to move forward.
The Havana Docks Corp is accusing Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines of trafficking in illegally seized property by sailing to the island country and using docks the 102-year-old, brass plate company claims it rightfully owns.
The accusations were made in three separate lawsuits filed Tuesday in Miami federal court.
"The communist Cuban government nationalized, expropriated, and seized ownership and control of the" Havana Cruise Port Terminal, the trio of complaints allege. "The [terminal] has not been returned and adequate and effective compensation has not been provided.
"Plaintiff never abandoned its legitimate interest in and claim to [the terminal]."
Royal Caribbean and MSC did not return requests for comment. Norwegian declined to comment.
Under title III of the Cuban Liberty and Solidarity Act of 1996 — more commonly known as the Helms-Burton Act or the Libertad Act — US citizens are able to bring federal lawsuits against companies that make money using property taken after the socialist Cuban Revolution that ushered Fidel Castro into power in 1959.
Title III had been suspended by every US president since the law's passage. In April, President Donald Trump decided to allow suits to go forward in an effort to punish Cuba for its support of the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela.
The Havana Docks Corp then sued Carnival in Miami in May. The cruise giant attempted to get the lawsuit thrown out, but Wednesday, US District Judge Beth Bloom denied Carnival's motion.
She ruled the Havana Docks Corp has a claim on the property under the law.
According to court papers from the four lawsuits, the company claims it owned the docks from 1917 until the Castro regime confiscated it in 1960.
In 1971, the US Foreign Claims Settlement Commission found the Havana Docks Corp owned and operated three piers and a building in Havana harbor and ruled the Cuban government owed the company at $9.2m. The company was primarily owned by US nationals.
It was incorporated in Delaware in 1917 and maintains an address in Kentucky, business records and court papers show.
The company is currently headed by Mickael Behn, who reportedly has residences in both Miami and London and inherited the claims from his grandfather William Behn, whose father Sosthenes Behn purchased the land on which the docks were built.
"This is an American crime on an American corporation," the youngest Behn told the Tampa Bay Times in early 2018.
"Don't go to Havana."
