The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to allow Exxon Mobil to sue a Cuban-owned company for damages after the oil major’s assets were seized during the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
In a 6-3 ruling penned by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the high court ruled Exxon could seek to recoup $70 million (in 1960 dollars) in oil and gas assets that are now controlled by Corporación Cimex.
The decision is a long-awaited win for the oil major, which had not been able to pursue a legal claim in federal court until the first Trump administration. The Supreme Court’s ruling could open the door for other U.S. companies to file similar lawsuits.
The court’s majority ruled that Exxon could sue under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, or Helms-Burton Act. The 1996 law allows private companies to recover assets from a person or entity that “traffics” in confiscated property. Exxon argued Congress passed the law with the intent of making it easier for companies to recover seized assets in Cuba.
Cimex had claimed that in order for Exxon to invoke the Helms-Burton Act, the company also had to meet certain criteria laid out in a separate 1976 law — the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act — that define a limited set of circumstances when companies can sue foreign nations or companies in U.S. federal court.
