Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

608 U. S. 235 (2026) · 5/21/26

In action filed by the Havana Docks Corporation pursuant to Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, 22 U. S. C. §6021 et seq., related to its property interest in the operation of docks at the Port of Havana, respondent cruise lines’ use of the docks is sufficient to establish that they used “property which was confiscated by the Cuban Government;” Havana Docks is not required to establish that the cruise lines “trafficked” in Havana Dock’s property interest.

In 1928, the United States-based Havana Docks Corporation acquired from the Cuban Government a property interest in the development and operation of docks at the Port of Havana. That property interest, a usufructuary concession, was time-limited and set to expire in 2004. The Cuban Government agreed that, if it expropriated the docks before 2004, it would compensate Havana Docks for the value of the works it had constructed. After Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, the new Cuban Government decreed that it would forcibly take American-owned properties and enterprises in Cuba and specifically…

Held: The cruise lines' use of the docks is sufficient to establish that they used “property which was confscated by the Cuban Government”; Havana Docks is not required to establish that the cruise lines traffcked in Havana Docks' property interest. Pp. 245–253. (a) Title III generally makes any person who “traffcs in property which was confscated by the Cuban Government . . . liable to any United States national who owns the claim to such property.” § 6082(a)(1)(A). This dispute turns on whether the relevant “property which was confscated” must be Havana Docks' property interest in the docks…