$80 Million Federal Judgment for Cuban Workers Forced Into Slave Labor at Curaçao Drydock

In the early 2000s, the Cuban government arranged to send workers to Curaçao Drydock Company, a large commercial shipyard in Willemstad, Curaçao, as part of an agreement to offset Cuba's debt to the company. The workers had no meaningful say in the arrangement. Three men, Alberto Justo Rodríguez, Fernando Alonso Hernández, and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo, were among at least 100 Cubans dispatched under this program.

At the drydock, the men's passports were confiscated on arrival. They worked 16-hour shifts repairing cruise ships and oil tankers, earning roughly three and a half cents per hour, a figure that was itself notional, as the money went toward Cuba's debt rather than to the workers. Housing consisted of overcrowded rooms, with 20 men sharing spaces designed for far fewer. On-the-job injuries, including burns and broken bones, were part of daily life. The workers faced threats of imprisonment if they refused to comply.

The three men eventually escaped the island, making their way through Venezuela and Colombia before reaching the U.S. embassy and obtaining visas. By 2006, all three had resettled in Tampa, Florida. That August, they filed suit in the Southern District of Florida under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreign nationals to bring civil claims in U.S. courts for serious violations of customary international law. The complaint alleged forced labor, human trafficking, and conspiracy with the Cuban government.

Stuart Grossman and Seth Miles of Grossman Roth, along with John Andres Thornton and Orlando do Campo of do Campo and Thornton, built the case around the workers' testimony and documentary evidence of the conditions at the drydock. The company moved to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds; the court denied the motion in February 2008, holding that the allegations of forced labor and human trafficking violated universal and obligatory norms of international law. The company then discharged its attorneys on July 30, 2008, and stopped participating in the proceedings.

Judge James L. King entered a default verdict in August 2008. A separate damages trial was held on October 31, 2008. The court found 'overwhelming and uncontroverted evidence' supporting the plaintiffs' claims and awarded $80 million in total: $30 million to Alonso and $25 million each to Rodríguez and Casanova. The company did not appear and did not pay. In June 2015, courts in Singapore, where Curaçao Drydock held assets, enforced the U.S. judgment.