LAS VEGAS (RNN) - The company which owns the hotel and venue where a 2017 mass shooting occurred has filed federal lawsuits against 1,000 shooting victims.
MGM Resorts International, which owns Mandalay Bay and the Route 91 Harvest Festival, is seeking to avoid liability in the Oct. 1 shooting which killed 58 and injured hundreds more.
The company states that it cannot be held liable for any deaths, injuries or other damages and that all claims against MGM "must be dismissed."
MGM claims that its security vendor took necessary measures approved by the Department of Homeland Security for "protecting against and responding to acts of mass injury and destruction."
A 2002 federal act expands liability protection to any company which uses "anti-terrorism" technology or services that can "help prevent and respond to mass violence,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The company hired Contemporary Services Corp which had been certified by DHS, according to the Review-Journal.
MGM does not seek compensation from the victims but instead will ask a judge to consider the 2002 act applicable in its case.
"The Federal Court is an appropriate venue for these cases and provides those affected with the opportunity for a timely resolution,” said Debra DeShong, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts in a statement Monday. "Years of drawn out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing."
The act defines terrorism as any unlawful act inside the U.S. that causes “mass destruction, injury or other loss.”
The FBI did not designate the 2017 shooting as an act of terrorism.
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