A Las Vegas court confirmed, Wednesday, September 30, an amicable agreement reached between the hotel and casino group MGM Resorts and the relatives of victims and survivors of the shooting of 1er October 2017, which killed 58 people in this city.
The company had been sued by more than 2,000 people because the shooter, Stephen Paddock, had fired from a window of the Mandalay Bay hotel, owned by the hotel group.
He had targeted the audience of a country music concert held on a lot next to the hotel, firing more than a thousand cartridges before committing suicide. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 800 others injured in the deadliest shooting in US history.
An amount beyond the insurance guarantee
MGM announced in October 2019 that it had reached an amicable agreement that had yet to obtain the green light from a court in Las Vegas. In her decision, consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), Judge Linda Bell notes that the amount proposed by MGM goes beyond the insurance guarantee ($ 751 million or € 640 million) and estimates so that the transaction was ” in good faith “.
The deal is expected to enable MGM Resorts to end the majority of legal actions brought by survivors or relatives of victims. Those who will accept compensation under the agreement will indeed undertake to drop all lawsuits against the hotelier.
But Wednesday’s judgment underlines that the transaction made the “Almost unanimous” among potential complainants and raises “The extraordinary work done by the councils in this case to obtain the largest possible amount for the plaintiffs (…) despite incredibly difficult and unique circumstances”.
“We are pleased that the decision allows families, victims and the public to go one step further to turn the page. It is particularly significant that the decision comes on the eve of the third anniversary of the incident, a moment of great sadness and contemplation ”, reacted, for its part, MGM Resorts in a statement to AFP.
