King has not said when he will issue his ruling. While the State Department can simply continue to refuse to release the long-frozen Cuba funds to the Brothers relatives until the King case winds its way through the appeals process, the telephone companies are in a more difficult position. U.S. legal practices require them to freeze assets immediately when faced with writs of garnishment, allowing them to fight the writs only later if they so wish, legal experts said. Direct Cuba-U.S. telephone calls have soared since they were legalized under the 1992 Torricelli Law and totaled about 120 million to 135 million minutes in 1998, about 90 percent of it originated in the United States. Cuba gets about 45 percent of the cost of U.S.-originated calls.
Disputes are to be settled by arbitration by a court in Paris.