It has been a little less than a month since MGM Resorts International had issues with its workers over a number of serious concerns. Well, the owner and operator of the Mandalay Bay Resort is back on the spotlight, and it is certainly not for good reason. MGM has filed a lawsuit against hundreds of victims of the mass shooting that was perpetrated by Stephen Paddock at the Las Vegas-based Mandalay Bay Resort and left 58 people dead and countless more injured. According to the lawsuit, the company has “no liability of any kind.”
The lawsuit has ignited a lot of outrage from various places and this forced MGM to release a statement to that clarified that the lawsuit was only meant to provide a “timely resolution” for the shooting victims who have either already sued the company or will do so in the future. The mains takeaway is, however, the fact that the company also stated that any litigation filed against it “must be dismissed.”
“The unforeseeable events of October 1st affected thousands of people in Las Vegas and throughout North America,” MGM Resorts spokeswoman Debra DeShong said. “From the day of this tragedy, we have focused on the recovery of those impacted by the despicable act of one evil individual.
While we expected the litigation that followed [the attack], we also feel strongly that victims and the community should be able to recover and find resolution in a timely manner… Years of drawn-out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community, and those still healing.”
The Specifics
The MGM Resorts lawsuits that were filed in federal courts in California and Nevada against a good number of the 2,500 victims or related person states that “no MGM Party attempted to commit, knowingly participated in, aided, abetted, committed, or participated in any conspiracy to commit any act of terrorism.”
It is worth noting that the lawsuit is only being filed against parties who either have already filed complaints or are threatening to do so against the entertainment operator for negligence and responsibility for death, injury and emotional distress related to the October 1 massacre. MGM’s lawsuit has named over 800 defendants in California and over 200 in Nevada.
“If Defendants were injured by (the) assault, as they allege, they were inevitably injured both because (the shooter) 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 a loss to CSC,” MGM says.
As expected, the move has not been met well by a number of people including the victims themselves. Some of them even believe that it is a mere stunt by the casino operator and therefore will not survive a court challenge. Let’s wait and see how this goes.
