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Article

18 Jul 2018

Author:
Joshua Barajas, PBS News Hour (USA)

MGM’s lawsuit against Las Vegas shooting victims, explained

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MGM Resorts International filed a lawsuit...saying the company has “no liability of any kind” to the victims of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.  More than 2,500 people...are looking to hold MGM responsible for the “deaths, injuries, and emotional distress resulting” from the attack.  MGM’s lawsuit...said these claims “must be dismissed” because the security services it procured...were provided by Contemporary Services Corporation, who has been certified by the Department of Homeland Security...The SAFETY ACT, enacted in 2002,...limits a company’s liability in claims that follow a terror attack, so long as that company used services certified by Homeland Security...Las Vegas authorities have yet to declare Paddock’s attack an act of terrorism...[P]olice have not determined a clear motive...Companies who have certification of the SAFETY Act cannot use liability protections “unless or until the secretary of Homeland Security has declared that the underlying event — in this case, Steven Paddock’s murderous rampage — an act of terrorism,” said Finch, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.  MGM is also asserting that all of its liability is erased because Contemporary Services Corporation has SAFETY Act protections. That is also incorrect, Finch said...[I]t remains to be seen if a judge agrees with MGM on the SAFETY Act grants the company protection from liability.