Miami, United States. – The Court of Appeals of the Eleventh Circuit of the United States He revoked Wednesday A first instance decision that dismissed a lawsuit filed by José Ramón López Regueiro against American Airlines for the alleged illegal use of the current “José Martí” International Airport in Havana.
According to the judicial opinion, the Court concluded that the lower court “missed by dismissing the claim”, and determined that the Helms-Burton law “It does not impose the previous conditions” required by the defense of the airline. Therefore, he ordered to revoke the dismissal and return the case to continue his legal course.
The original demand was filed by López Regueiro under the Title III of the Helms-Burton Lawwhich allows US citizens to claim compensation to companies that have “trafficked” with properties confiscated by the Cuban government after 1959.
The plaintiff claimed that his father, José López Vilaboy, acquired the main airport in Cuba in 1955 through the Company Company of International Airports SA (CAISA). After taking power by Fidel Castro, the airport was expropriated and the family fled to the United States.
After Vilaboy’s death in 1989, López Regueiro inherited Caisa’s actions according to Florida’s law, although he did not become an American citizen until 2015. American Airlines, according to the lawsuit, “trafficked with the property” by operating flights from and to the airport from at least 1991.
The airline requested the dismissal of the cause arguing that the Helms-Burton law required that both the original owner and the heir were American citizens at the time of confiscation and the acquisition of interest in the property. The District Court accepted that interpretation and dismissed the case, but the Court of Appeals categorically rejected it.
“The Helms-Burton law does not require the owner of the property to have been a citizen of the United States at the time he was expropriated or that the plaintiff has been a citizen when he acquired an interest in the property,” said the ruling, written by Judge Jill Pryor. “The text of the law is clear: any American citizen who owns a valid claim on confiscated property can sue, even if he acquired that claim before naturalizing.”
The court also rejected the argument that López Regueiro did not have a real interest in the airport, but only Caisa actions. “The Helms-Burton law protects those who have an interest in confiscated property, including shareholders, although they do not directly possess the property in question,” said the sentence, citing the recent case FERNANDEZ v. Seaboard Marine Ltd.
Likewise, the Court of Appeals recalled that the definition of “National of the United States” according to the law includes “any American citizen”, and that this definition “must be interpreted in its broadest sense.”
The ruling indicates that Congress, by promulgating the law in 1996, “tried to provide a compensation mechanism for those who suffered losses for the actions of the Castro regime”, in contrast to previous laws that only allowed state claims before the Foreign Claiming Liquidation Commission (FCSC).
After raising President Donald Trump the suspension of Title III in 2019, López Regueiro was one of the first to file a lawsuit under this legal protection. The appeal occurred after a judge of first instance supported the arguments of American Airlines. Now, the case may continue in court.
“Regueiro claimed that the Cuban government confiscated the airport, that he fell was its owner and that he inherited his actions. These allegations, at this procedural stage, are enough to sustain the lawsuit,” the Court concluded.
The decision represents an important victory for those who seek repairs under the Helms-Burton law and could set a precedent for other similar pending demands in federal courts.
