MGM Resorts International is suing hundreds of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history in a bid to avoid liability for the gunfire that rained down from its Mandalay Bay casino-resort in Las Vegas.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The company argues in lawsuits filed in Nevada, California, New York and other states this week and last that it has "no liability of any kind" to survivors or families of slain victims under a federal law enacted after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The lawsuits target victims who have sued the company and voluntarily dismissed their claims or have threatened to sue after a gunman shattered the windows of his Mandalay Bay suite and fired on a crowd gathered below for a country music festival.
High-stakes gambler Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more last year before killing himself. Victims with active lawsuits against MGM don't face the company's legal claim.
MGM said the 2002 law limits liabilities when a company or group uses services certified by the US Department of Homeland Security and mass attacks occur.
The company said it is not liable because its security vendor for the concert, Contemporary Services Corp., was federally certified at the time of the October 1 shooting.
MGM claims the victims - through actual and threatened lawsuits - have implicated CSC's services because they involve concert security, including training, emergency response and evacuation.
MGM wants a court to declare that the US law "precludes any finding of liability" against the company "for any claim for injuries arising out of or related to Paddock's mass attack."
MGM spokeswoman Debra DeShong said Congress determined that federal courts should handle any lawsuits over mass attacks where federally certified security services were provided.
"While we expected the litigation that followed, we also feel strongly that victims and the community should be able to recover and find resolution in a timely manner," she said in a statement Tuesday.
Attorney Robert Eglet, who represents victims in a lawsuit pending in federal court in Nevada, also decried the casino operator's move, saying the company is filing complaints nationwide in search of a sympathetic judge. He told AP he has been flooded with calls from victims.
"This is absolute gamesmanship. It's outrageous. It's just pouring gasoline on the fire of (the victims') suffering," Eglet said. "They are very distraught, very upset over this. MGM is trying to intimidate them."
Australian Associated Press