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Exxon oil and gas assets in Cuba were seized in 1960 Energy giant seeks compensation from Cuban company Court hears second case involving cruise line US law called Helms-Burton attracts attention
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will consider the scope of a law that requires U.S. companies to compensate Cuba for property seized in the case involving ExxonMobil and cruise lines, as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up pressure on Cuba’s government.
The court will hear arguments in two consecutive cases involving a 1996 U.S. law known as the Helms-Burton Act that allows legal action in U.S. courts against those who “smuggle” property confiscated by Cuba’s communist government after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
In one of the lawsuits, Exxon is seeking more than $1 billion in damages from the Cuban state-owned company for the energy giant’s oil and gas assets seized by the Cuban government in 1960.
Another lawsuit challenges whether four cruise lines – Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises – should be held responsible for using docks built by American companies that were also taken over by Cuba in 1960. The cruise company’s lawsuit will be the first to be argued.
Exxon is backed by the Trump administration in this lawsuit.
The administration has declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and has threatened to cut off the flow of Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean island nation and impose tariffs on countries that supply Cuba with fuel.
Although the two cases focus on different legal issues, both raise questions about how strong a remedy Congress intended for the Helms-Burton Act. In either case, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to remove the barriers that plaintiffs face in bringing suit under the statute.
Mr. Castro’s confiscation of all of Exxon’s Cuban oil and gas assets resulted in losses worth $70 million at the time. Exxon’s current claims are worth far more than that, given interest and the potential for increased damages.
In 2019, Exxon sued Cororación CIMEX, Cuba’s largest conglomerate. Exxon accused CIMEX of continuing to hold and profit from the confiscated assets.
Exxon appealed to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled that Cuba’s state-owned companies facing Helms-Burton lawsuits can invoke a legal defense called foreign sovereign immunity, which protects foreign governments and their agents from U.S. lawsuits unless an exception applies.
The cruise line lawsuit was brought by Havana Dox, a U.S. corporation that had a 99-year interest in the construction and operation of the Havana port’s piers, granted by the Cuban government in 1934. The Castro regime abandoned the agreement.
The four cruise lines that Havana Dox sued used the terminal from 2016 to 2019 after then-President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions to the Caribbean island nation.
A federal judge has imposed a judgment of more than $100 million against the cruise line, ruling that it was using the terminal to illegally traffic people. Havana Dox appealed after a lower court reversed those decisions, ruling that it had no valid claim because its concession expired in 2004, long before the cruise line used the facility.
When the Helms-Burton Act was passed, Congress gave the president of the United States the power to suspend provisions allowing litigation in U.S. courts on national security grounds. The provision was later suspended by three presidents seeking to avoid diplomatic tensions with allies such as Canada and Spain, whose companies have investments in Cuba. Trump lifted the suspension in 2019, during his first term in office.
Reporting by Jan Wolfe in New Orleans. Editing: Will Dunham
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