LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — MGM Resorts International has taken the extraordinary step of suing hundreds of victims of the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas in a bid to avoid liability from the deadly attack.
MGM Resorts operates both the Mandalay Bay hotel where the Stephen Paddock was alleged to have established his sniper’s nest and the open space used for the festival that Paddock allegedly targeted.
According to the Las Vegas Journal-Review, MGM Resorts International, filed the suits in California on Friday, arguing it has “no liability of any kind” to survivors or families of victims killed in the attack.
MGM’s suits are not seeking financial compensation from the victims but it seeking a ruling from a federal judge that the resort chain is not liable.
MGM Resorts legal arguments are relying on the SAFETY Act of 2002, which extends liability protection to any company that uses either anti-terrorism technology or services to provide for the safety of its clients and employees.
According to MGM’s suit, their security contractor for the festival, Contemporary Service Corp., is certified by the Department of Homeland Security for “protecting against and responding to acts of mass injury and destruction” and would indemnify MGM Resorts from liability them under the act.
MGM is seeking to shift the burden of liability to its contractor Contemporary Services.
“If defendants were injured by Paddock’s assault, as they allege, they were inevitably injured both because Paddock fired from his window and because they remained in the line of fire at the concert. Such claims inevitably implicate security at the concert — and may result in loss to CSC,” the MGM lawsuits filing said.
Lawyer Robert Eglet, who represents victims in a lawsuit pending in federal court in Nevada, took issue with MGM’s action.
“MGM has done something that in over 30 years of practice is the most outrageous thing I have ever seen,” Eglet told the CBC. “They have sued the families of victims while they’re still grieving over their loved ones.”
