If you missed it, the Bangor Daily News had an article yesterday about a woman from Maine who sued the Republic of Cuba for the wrongful death of her father who is believed to have disappeared in Cuba in 1963.
I’ve been a lawyer for nearly 30 years and have never heard of a lawsuit such as this being successful. A citizen of Maine filing a suit in state court against a foreign country for an incident that happened over 25 years ago.
Sherry Sullivan was granted damages of $21 million plus interest for the death of her father Geoffrey Sullivan.
But I don’t fully understand the basis of the damages.
Apparently, there is no allegation that the Republic of Cuba somehow caused Mr. Sullivan’s death. The newspaper article stated that Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm found that “Sullivan suffered through years of uncertainty, not really knowing what happened to her father and not knowing whether he was alive or dead. He found that Cuba repeatedly ignored her requests for information.”
There appears to be some information that her father was jailed and since Cuba refused repeated requests to supply her with any information about him, Hjelm found that “This uncertainty has devastated Ms. Sullivan’s life.”
Sullivan believes her father was held in a Cuban jail for at least a decade and later executed as a spy.
Amazing.
UPDATE:
As you can see from the comment to this post, the Cuban official website Cubadebate has picked this blog post to give its reaction to the case. Thanks to Renato Pérez Pizarro, the comment is translated here.
Al, the Cuban official website Cubadebate has picked this blog item to express its reaction to the court ruling. No doubt, Havana will comment directly and in greater detail, but for the time being it is using your comment as a proxy comment. Call up:
http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2009/08/21/abogado-norteamericano-asombrado-por-decision-de-corte-en-maine-contra-cuba/
Posted by: renato perez | August 21, 2009 at 06:54 PM