MGM Resorts International has filed federal lawsuits against more than 1,000 victims of the October 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas, arguing that it cannot be held liable for the 58 deaths and hundreds of injuries that occurred that day.
The suits state that MGM should not be held responsible because of the security company it hired for the festival, which is protected by an anti-terrorism act, with MGM arguing that it should be considered protected as well because it hired the company.
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The anti-terrorism act in question was passed after the September 11 attacks and extends liability protection to companies that use “anti-terrorism” technology or services which aim to “help prevent and respond to mass violence.”
MGM hired Contemporary Services Corp. for the festival, with the company’s services certified by the Department of Homeland Security and putting them under the act’s protection.
MGM owns Mandalay Bay, the hotel where the shooter stayed and fired from his room at the concert, which was taking place outdoors. The attack has not been classified as a terrorist attack by the FBI because the shooter’s motive has not yet been discovered.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the suits were filed on Friday, July 13 and target victims who filed their own suits against MGM attempting to hold the company liable for the shooting. Complaints filed in Nevada and California assert that any claims against MGM parties “must be dismissed.”
“Plaintiffs have no liability of any kind to defendants,” the suits state.
In November, hundreds of victims filed a lawsuit against MGM that alleged negligence and claimed that MGM failed to properly monitor the room the shooter stayed in, according to the Review-Journal.
MGM’s lawsuits are not asking for money and are simply seeking for the company not to be held liable.
Las Vegas attorney Robert Eglet has represented several victims of the shooting and called the grounds of MGM’s suits “obscure.”
Eglet called MGM’s choice to file the complaints in federal court as a “blatant display of judge shopping” that “quite frankly verges on unethical.”
“I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like,” he said. “It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”
Debra DeShong, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts, called the federal court “an appropriate venue for these cases and provides those affected with the opportunity for a timely resolution.”
“Years of drawn-out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing,” DeShong said.
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