US Supreme Court opens the courthouse door to lawsuits tied to Cuba’s property seizures 6 decades after the fact

Many of Cuba's gas stations, like this one seen in 2014, originally belonged to the company that is now Exxon Mobil. Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

Cuba’s economy is collapsing, and its government assets in the United States remain largely frozen. But U.S. corporations have a right to seek compensation from assets the Cuban government seized from American companies more than six decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 23, 2026.

In Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Corporación Cimex, a majority of six justices ruled that the oil and gas giant could sue Cuban government agencies and state-owned companies for operating a refinery, terminals and gas stations that Fidel Castro’s regime took from its predecessor, Standard Oil, in 1960.