“MGM Resorts International has filed federal lawsuits against more than 1,000 Las Vegas mass shooting victims in an effort to avoid liability,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. “The company, which owns Mandalay Bay and the Route 91 Harvest festival venue, argues that it cannot be held liable for Oct. 1 deaths, injuries or other damages, adding that any claims against MGM parties ‘must be dismissed,’ according to complaints filed Friday in Nevada and California.”
The complaints state: “Plaintiffs have no liability of any kind to defendants.”
The report notes that the company is citing a 2002 federal act that extends liability protection to any company using “anti-terrorism” technology or services that can “help prevent and respond to mass violence.”
“In this case, the company argues, the security vendor MGM hired for Route 91, Contemporary Services Corp., was protected from liability because its services had been certified by the Department of Homeland Security for ‘protecting against and responding to acts of mass injury and destruction,'” the story reports.
Las Vegas attorney Robert Eglet, who has represented a number of the victims, told the paper that the grounds of the litigation are “obscure.”
Eglet told the paper that any lawsuits belong in state court because MGM is a Nevada company. “He viewed the decision to file the complaints in federal court as a ‘blatant display of judge shopping’ that ‘quite frankly verges on unethical,'” the paper reports.
Eglet is quoted saying: “I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like. It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”
This lawsuit is outrageous. I don’t understand the legal basis for it. How much is MGM asking from each of the victims? Does every victim now need a lawyer? Can they respond with a class action suit?
its time to call for an universal boycott of MGM properties EVERYWHERE ….
this is both stupid and insulting … heartless a-holes … I had a horrible time
at the Mandalay recently on a totally unrelated issue … time to shut down that crappy property …
What a shitty move
Money makes some people greedy.
In this case, money has made some people incredibly stupid. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. If somebody at MGM doesn’t take charge and put the kibosh on this short-sighted nonsense, this will degenerate into a PR nightmare they will never recover from. Even if they manage to find a judge and win a verdict, they’ll lose.
If nothing else, it’s a bit of a legalistic stretch to claim that liability protections extended to any particular company (in this case Contemporary Services Corp.) are also extended to said company’s clients… since it is CSC, not MGM, offering services that would be eligible for those liability protections.
Particularly since the accused shooter managed over some period of time to make repeated trips through the Mandalay (where CSC was likely not contracted to furnish security) in order to stock up a rather substantial arsenal in his hotel room.