Las Vegas shooting victims ‘reach landmark settlement expected to pay up to $800m’

MGM had originally sought to avoid liability using a little-known federal law enacted following the 9/11 attacks

Lawyers for the victims of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting say they have reached a deal to settle the lawsuit with MGM Resorts, with an expected payout of up to $800m (£647m).

The massive settlement comes just over two years after the massacre, in which a gunman broke the window of a Mandalay bay suite and began open-firing on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival.

Lawyer Robert Eglet said on Thursday that the settlement would be between $735m and $800m, and would resolve “substantially all” of the lawsuits related to the shooting. Victims began suing following the shooting claiming that MGM had been negligent in allowing the shooter to stockpile high-powered rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition in the hotel room.

“While nothing will 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,” Mr Eglet wrote in a statement, which said the deal “represents good corporate citizenship” by MGM.

That shooting left 58 people dead, and wounded almost 700, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. No motive was ever identified by law enforcement in the years since.

The settlement amount announced by lawyers falls in line with a regulatory filing from MGM Resorts, in which it noted that it could face payouts for the same amount.

MGM had initially responded with a robust legal defence to the claims that began to pour in claiming negligence, and sought to block all of the victims from receiving money from the company by arguing that a little-known federal law enacted in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks shielded the company from liability.

The company then argued that the shooting qualified as an “act of terrorism” under the definitions in that law, and therefore — because of that, and also because a security firm that had been hired for the event possessed a special designation from the Department of Homeland Security — the company should not be held liable for damages.

Reliance on that law meant that MGM needed to funnel cases into federal court, which ultimately stirred anger when the company began to counter sue victims.

The shooting on 1 October 2017, left the country reeling from the latest in a string of deadly attacks that have yet to stop. The shooting, as always happens, sparked calls for stricter gun controls in the US, but no major policy changes were enacted.

Firing took place over a span of 10-15 minutes, and the shooter was later found dead on the 32nd floor of the hotel. Alongside him were numerous firearms, and rounds of ammunition.

MGM said in May that a settlement was “reasonably possible”, when presented with a deal that is similar to what has now been agreed to.