Mario Del Valle v. Trivago GMBH

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 2025
Docket23-12966
StatusUnpublished

This text of Mario Del Valle v. Trivago GMBH (Mario Del Valle v. Trivago GMBH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mario Del Valle v. Trivago GMBH, (11th Cir. 2025).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 1 of 17

[DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 23-12966 ____________________

MARIO DEL VALLE, ENRIQUE FALLA, ANGELO POU, Plaintiffs-Appellants, CAROLINA FERNANDEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, versus TRIVAGO GMBH, a German Limited Liability Company, BOOKING.COM B.V., a Dutch Limited Liability Company, GRUPO HOTELERO GRAN CARIBE, CORPORACION DE COMERCIO Y TURISMO INTERNACIONAL CUBANACAN S.A., USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 2 of 17

2 Opinion of the Court 23-12966

GRUPO DE TURISMO GAVIOTA S.A., et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-22619-RNS ____________________

Before ROSENBAUM, BRANCH, and KIDD, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Plaintiffs-Appellants Mario Del Valle, Enrique Falla, and An- gela Pou, on behalf of themselves and a putative class, filed suit under Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (also known as the “Helms-Burton Act”) against several entities that own and operate travel websites. These entities include De- fendants-Appellants Booking.com BV and Booking Holdings, Inc. (“Booking Entities”), and Expedia Group, Inc., Hotels.com L.P., Hotels.com GP, and Orbitz, LLC (“Expedia Entities”). Plaintiffs allege that they are U.S. nationals and heirs to prop- erties that the Cuban government nationalized after the 1959 revo- lution. After seizing the properties, Plaintiffs assert, the Cuban gov- ernment built the Starfish Cuatro Palmas and the Memories Jiba- coa Resort (“Resorts”) on the confiscated land. Visitors can reserve USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 3 of 17

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lodging at the Resorts through third-party travel-booking websites, including, according to the complaint, the Booking Entities and Ex- pedia Entities. Based on these allegations, they argue, Defendants are trafficking in confiscated American property, in violation of 22 U.S.C. §§ 6023(13), 6082(a)(1)(A). This is the second time we’ve considered an appeal in this case. Previously, we reversed the district court’s dismissal of Plain- tiffs’ complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. Del Valle v. Trivago GMBH, 56 F.4th 1265, 1279 (11th Cir. 2022). Now, Plaintiffs appeal the district court’s grant of Defendants’ motion to dismiss their complaint with prejudice for failure to state a claim. See FED. R. CIV. P. 12(b)(6). The district court ruled that Falla and Pou failed to state a claim because they alleged that they inherited their property after March 12, 1996, the date by which the Helms-Burton Act requires litigants to “acquire[] ownership of the claim” to confiscated prop- erty. See U.S.C. § 6082(a)(4)(B). And it held that all Plaintiffs failed to satisfactorily allege that Defendants “knowingly and intention- ally trafficked” Plaintiffs’ purported property. Plaintiffs now dispute those conclusions. First, Falla and Pou contend the Helms-Burton Act’s bar date does not apply to them or, in the alternative, we should equitably toll it. Second, all Plaintiffs offer three arguments for why Defendants are knowingly and intentionally trafficking in confiscated American property: (1) President Clinton’s 1996 signing statement put Defendants on no- tice; (2) Plaintiffs’ August 6, 2019, letters to Defendants put USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 4 of 17

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Defendants on notice; and (3) the complaint itself put Defendants on notice. Third, Plaintiffs assert the district court abused its dis- cretion in dismissing their complaint with prejudice and preventing them from amending their complaint on an issue the parties had not litigated. Defendants resist each of Plaintiffs’ arguments. They also press another reason we should affirm the district court’s order: they say Plaintiffs (particularly, Del Valle) did not adequately allege ownership of the purportedly confiscated property. After careful consideration, we affirm the district court’s or- der dismissing Plaintiffs’ complaint. First, we affirm the dismissal of Falla’s and Pou’s claims because they do not satisfy the Helms- Burton Act’s bar date. Second, we reject Defendants’ argument that Del Valle did not adequately allege ownership of the purport- edly confiscated property. Third, we agree with the district court that Plaintiffs have not shown that Defendants had knowingly traf- ficked in confiscated American property. And fourth, we conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow Del Valle to amend his complaint. So we affirm the district court’s order with respect to all Plaintiffs. I. In March 1996, President Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-114, 110 Stat. 785 (1996) (codified at 22 U.S.C. §§ 6021–6091), commonly known as the Helms-Burton Act. Congress passed that Act in part “to protect United States nationals against confiscatory USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 5 of 17

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takings and the wrongful trafficking in property confiscated by the Castro regime.” 22 U.S.C. § 6022(6). Under Title III of the Act, any person who “traffics in prop- erty which was confiscated by the Cuban Government on or after January 1, 1959, shall be liable to any United States national who owns the claim to such property . . . .” 22 U.S.C. § 6082(a)(1)(A). “In the case of property confiscated before March 12, 1996,” though, “a United States national may not bring an action under this section on a claim to the confiscated property unless such na- tional acquires ownership of the claim before March 12, 1996.” Id. § 6082(a)(4)(B) (emphasis added). We’ve interpreted this provision to provide a definitive bar on claims acquired after that date. So we’ve held that heirs of al- legedly trafficked property may not bring claims under Title III if they inherited that property on or after March 12, 1996. See Garcia- Bengochea v. Carnival Corp., 57 F.4th 916, 930 (11th Cir. 2023) (“Be- cause La Marítima was confiscated prior to 1996, and Dr. Garcia- Bengochea inherited his interest (i.e., acquired ownership of his claim) after Desiderio’s death in 2000, he cannot assert a claim un- der Title III.”); Fernandez v. Seaboard Marine LTD., 135 F.4th 939, 948 (11th Cir. Apr. 14, 2025) (“[I]ndividuals who inherited an interest in confiscated property after the cutoff date are barred from bringing a claim under the Act.”). Under our precedent, this provision bars Falla’s and Pou’s claims. Falla alleges that he inherited his claim to putatively confis- cated property upon the death of his mother in 2004. And Pou USCA11 Case: 23-12966 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 05/20/2025 Page: 6 of 17

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avers that he inherited his claim to putatively confiscated property upon the death of his mother in 2014. Because both assert that they inherited the property that forms the bases of their claims af- ter March 12, 1996, we must dismiss their claims. Garcia-Bengochea, 57 F.4th at 930; Fernandez, 135 F.4th at 948.

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