Several months back, Judge Moreno presided over the nation's first jury trial involving the Helms-Burton Act. As the blog readers likely know, that statute prohibits the knowing trafficking in property confiscated by the Communist Cuban government. The Plaintiff in the case had sued four companies that facilitate hotel bookings. The verdict came back for the Plaintiff and it was a big one: $119.4 million.
But in the words of the great (and recently retired) Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend." Judge Moreno set aside the jury verdict as to all four defendants. In short, the court found (1) that one defendant (Expedia Group, Inc.) didn't do anything wrong and couldn't be tagged with the acts of its co-defendants or a non-party Expedia entity) and (2) that the other defendants (Orbitz, LLC and Hotels.com) didn't knowingly traffic because they actually ceased-and-desisted bookings when they received Plaintiff's notice.
Full order is here. The conclusion, though, sums it up well as follows:
A trial court's decision to set aside a jury verdict should never been taken lightly, particularly in a case where great lawyers on both sides have well represented their clients admirably, with passion but respect, over a long period of time. Much time and money has been spent by the parties and counsel as the Court struggled with the multitude of legal issues, which may well be decided differently by the wiser Court of Appeals. Perhaps, now we understand better the decisions of our United States Presidents, both Democrat and Republican, to suspend provisionally Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. There may be little comfort for either side of this first-ever Helms Burton Act jury trial in President Trump's decision in his first term not to defer any longer the bipartisan Congressional intent in 1996, after the shooting of the airplanes used to save Cuban refugees fleeing the island suffering a Communist dictatorship for the last 65 years. After all, even without a money judgment in favor of Plaintiff, the intent of the Helms-Burton Act was indeed followed. Those parties who are notified that their actions violate the Act must stop their activity. Defendants did cease bookings with the hotels located on Plaintiff's inherited property within the 30 days provided by the Act and thus complied with the purpose of the law passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton. Therefore, the Court sets aside the jury verdicts and enters judgments in favor of Defendants Expedia Group, Inc., Hotels.com GP, LLC, Hotels.com L.P., and Orbitz, LLC.
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