A U.S. Appeals Court announced its decision overturning a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that had found four of the major cruise corporations liable for committing a “trafficking act” for using piers in Havana that had been confiscated from a U.S. company after the 1959 Communist Revolution. The lower court had awarded the Havana Docks Corporation $440 million in compensation from Carnival Corporation, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, and Royal Caribbean Group for the cruises the lines operated to Havana between 2016 and 2019.

At issue was a section of a U.S. law known as the Helms-Burton or the Libertad Act passed in 1996 that permitted U.S. corporations to seek compensation from companies profiting from the use of the confiscated property. The section known as Title III however had been suspended by presidential actions until 2019 when the suspension was removed as part of the moves by President Donald Trump against Cuba. He also bared travel and trade with Cuba.

The Havana Docks Corporation, a dormant company, filed its claims citing that in 1905 it received a 99-year concession for the docks that it built in Havana. The company operated the docks until they were seized by the Castro regime in 1960 and it…