MGM Resorts International settled with victims of the October 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting for up to $800 million on Thursday, one day after a prominent forum on gun control brought Democratic presidential candidates including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren to the city.
“While nothing will be able to bring back the lives lost or undo the horrors so many suffered on that day, this settlement will provide fair compensation for thousands of victims and their families,” Robert Eglet, a lawyer for one of the victims, said in a statement on the settlement, which he confirmed would resolve “substantially all” lawsuits against MGM stemming from the attack.
The gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed 58 people and injured hundreds from a 32nd-floor room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel, which MGM owns, during a country-music festival on October 1, 2017. It is to date the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
The New York Times reported that MGM had initially attempted to stonewall possible litigation and claim a shield of liability in the face of attempts by victims who argued the company had been negligent in its treatment of Paddock.
MGM had argued that the attack was an “act of terrorism” under the federal Safety Act passed in the aftermath of 9/11, and as such the company was not liable for it. But the company’s lawyers backed away from that stance amid public outrage, and in May the company said a settlement was a “reasonably possible” outcome.