[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 21-11906 ____________________ MARIA DOLORES CANTO MARTI, as personal representative of the Estates of Dolores Martí Mercadé and Fernando Canto Bory, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus IBEROSTAR HOTELES Y APARTAMENTOS S.L., a Spanish limited liability company,

Defendant-Appellee.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida USCA11 Case: 21-11906 Date Filed: 11/21/2022 Page: 2 of 22

2 Opinion of the Court 21-11906

D.C. Docket No. 1:20-cv-20078-RNS ____________________ Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, JILL PRYOR, and GRANT, Circuit Judges. GRANT, Circuit Judge: Maria Dolores Canto Marti has waited almost three years for Iberostar Hoteles y Apartamentos S.L. to respond to her lawsuit. In January 2020 she sued Iberostar under the Helms- Burton Act, which grants the right to sue companies trafficking in property confiscated by the Cuban government. 22 U.S.C. § 6082. Marti claims that Cuba seized her family’s hotel in 1961 and that Iberostar and the Cuban government now operate the hotel together. Shortly after the suit was filed, the district court stayed the case at Iberostar’s request. In support of the stay, Iberostar pointed to a European Union blocking regulation that prohibits participation in Helms-Burton suits—on pain of a fine that could reach 600,000 euros here. Iberostar had applied for an exception to the regulation, and the district court stayed the case pending the European Commission’s decision. The suit has remained frozen ever since. As months passed with no progress from the European Commission, Marti sought to end the stay. She twice moved to lift it, first in July 2020 and again in March 2021. The district court USCA11 Case: 21-11906 Date Filed: 11/21/2022 Page: 3 of 22

21-11906 Opinion of the Court 3 refused, relying on international comity, fairness, and judicial economy. Marti now appeals the denial of her second motion. European Commission deliberations have stopped this case in its tracks, with no end in sight. Marti has effectively been pushed out of federal court. That means we have jurisdiction over the stay order, which is “immoderate” and thus unlawful. It is indefinite in duration and has stalled the case for almost three years. Considering this delay, we find that any earlier justifications for the stay have eroded. We reverse the district court’s denial of Marti’s renewed motion and vacate the stay. The case must go on. I. The story of this suit began over sixty years ago. In 1959, Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba and started to confiscate property from thousands of United States nationals and millions of his own citizens, many of whom later claimed asylum in the United States. See 22 U.S.C. § 6081. According to Marti, the Cuban government seized a hotel called “El Imperial” that belonged in part to her father, Fernando Canto Bory, whose family had owned the land and hotel since 1909. At some point, Bory and his wife, Dolores Martí Mercadé, became United States citizens. Although the two are now deceased, they allegedly never abandoned their combined one-half interest in the property. Iberostar entered the picture in 2016. That was the year Marti says that Iberostar contracted with the Cuban government to manage and operate El Imperial, now known as the Cubanacan USCA11 Case: 21-11906 Date Filed: 11/21/2022 Page: 4 of