Iberostar, one of the Spanish companies sued in the United States under The Helms–Burton Acthas requested that this legal action be dismissed on the main argument that the court has no jurisdiction over a company that is based in Spain and has no business or physical presence in the state of Florida.

In a judicial document that Efe made accessible this Thursday and which includes an affidavit by Alberto Llompart, general counsel for Iberostar Hoteles y Apartamentos, SL, the company’s lawyers develop those and other arguments to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2020 by María Dolores Cantó Martí in federal court in Miami.

The plaintiff claims to have legal rights to a property in Cuba where his family owns a hotel and which was confiscated from them after the victory of the revolution in 1959, and alleges that Iberostar profited by operating the establishment, therefore, under Title III of Helms-Burton Act, claiming financial compensation.

As reported by HOSTELTUR at Spain has urged Brussels to seek a suspension of the Helms-Burton LawIn 2021, the Spanish government asked Brussels to take advantage of the arrival of a new president in the White House Joe Biden to suspend as soon as possible The Helms–Burton Actwhose reactivation by the previous Administration of donald trump so much has hurt Spain’s tourism investments Cuba.

Over three years, 44 lawsuits have been filed and only one has been settled definitively and not in court

During Donald Trump’s tenure, Spanish hotel companies were established in Cuba, such as Melia, Barcelona one of iberostarsee their investment in the island being threatened by North American Administration’s decision to reinstate Title III of the Helms-Burton Actwhich made it possible to claim property expropriated by the Cuban revolutionary government since 1959 in US courts.

Title III, which after 23 years in judicial limbo entered into force on May 2, 2019 by decree of then-President Donald Trump, allows companies that profited from property seized in Cuba before 1996 to sue in the United States. , the year the Helms-Burton Act came into effect.

Iberostar argument

Iberostar, based on the island of Mallorca, not only questioned the Miami court’s jurisdiction in this case, but also denied operating the Hotel Imperial and pointed out that the rights of the plaintiff, María Dolores Cantó Martí, over the seized property were not proven.

“Iberostar Spain does not own, nor has it ever owned, Imperial Hotel,” emphasized Llompart, who also denied that his company had managed or operated it in partnership with the Cuban government.

According to Llompart, when this lawsuit was filed, the Imperial hotel did not display the Iberostar brand banner. “He only experienced it between 2017 and 2019,” he stressed.

According to the US-Cuba Economic and Commercial Council, the private and not-for-profit entity that has compiled all the information on the lawsuits seeking Title III, the 44 filed to date involve companies from 15 countries. These are the US, Cuba, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Panama, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and the UK.

Of those claims, 15 were “certified”, meaning that they were US citizens who lost their property in Cuba, and 29 were not certified, meaning they were citizens of Cuba or another country.

87 entities were sued

The board, led by John Kavulich, compiled a list of 87 entities that have actually been sued or have been notified that they may be sued, which is the previous step set out in the title.

Amazon, Visa, Booking, Expedia, Mastercard and Trivago are on the list, along with BNP Paribas, BBVA, Meliá, Iberostar, Barceló, Hotel NH, Pernod Ricard, Iberia, Air Europa, Latam, Societe Generale.

Some companies have various lawsuits. The record is held by travel platform Expedia, which was included in eight cases.

According to the council, the only plaintiffs who have received compensation so far are the Clafins, a family that the Cuban regime confiscated in 1960 from what was then the “Soledad Sugar Company”.

In 2020, the Clafin family filed a lawsuit against Swiss multinational LafargeHolcim in a South Florida court for doing business with assets expropriated from them in Cuba and, the following year, the two parties reached a compensation agreement for an undisclosed amount, which closed the case definitively. .

Justice has so far only issued judgments, requiring each of the four shipping companies being sued, Norway, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and MSC, to pay about $100 million each, but they can still appeal.

Currently, ten lawsuits are being tried in the court of appeals and the same judicial body has rejected six. According to the US-Cuba Commerce and Economic Council, US authorities have certified 5,913 cases of state citizens and corporations that could benefit from Title III, for a total of 1,900 million dollars, which with interest over 60 years would total to 8.521 million. To that very large number, we must add the amount not assessed for “uncertified” claims.