Court Appears Ready to Clear Cruise Lines in Cuba Travel Suit

The Eleventh Circuit Friday seemed open to absolving four cruise lines of $440 million in liability for committing “trafficking acts” by carrying passengers to Havana and using port facilities that had been confiscated by Fidel Castro’s government in 1960.

Plaintiff Havana Docks Corp. held a 99-year leasehold interest to operate the Havana harbor terminal, which would have expired in 2004. In oral arguments Friday, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit suggested that HDC’s rights had expired before the cruise lines began Cuban trips.

After the Obama administration loosened travel restrictions with Cuba in ...