- Quickdraw McLaw
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Last Friday, a group of MGM entities including MGM Resorts International, Mandalay Resort Group, filed a complaint in federal court seeking declaratory relief against victims of the October 1 shooting who filed (or have threatened to file) suit against the various MGM entities. Three different firms, with James Pisanelli serving as lead attorney, are on the Complaint that alleges that CSC–the security company used by the MGM entities for the Route 91 festival–was certified by the Department of Homeland Security. The Complaint further alleges that the shooting was An Act of Terrorism under the SAFETY Act. If the allegations are true, then the federal courts (not state court) have jurisdiction and the claims against the MGM entities must be dismissed.
Now, it’s time for a little armchair lawyering and an opportunity for you to weigh in on this unique situation. MGM is a publicly traded company and is Nevada’s largest employer. It relies on tourism, but finds itself in a position where it has to fight against the interests of its customers to protect its own bottom line. Is this a good strategy? Who is ultimately making the decisions for MGM? Given the facts and firms involved, it is likely that an insurance company is behind at least some of this decision, but is getting out in front of this the best move? Does it look to much like forum shopping? Will a court find it was Act of Terrorism? Is the bad publicity MGM going to get from this going to be worth the result? Any predictions on where this goes or how it ends?
Here are a couple of news links about the story:
The evil insurance company tower must be directing this crap. Maybe next time test this BS defense in one case against marginal lawyers before you poke the bear. NJA unite! I hope MGM's insurers get their asses kicked.
Thanks, Eglet, for that insightful comment.
MGM states that because it hired CSC, who is certified by DHS, it has immunity from terror acts for the Route 91 killings. The glaring problem I see in this (imputed) immunity claim is that CSC was hired for Route 91 and its fairgrounds, not for security at Mandalay Bay. Mandalay Bay has its own security (not certified by DHS) and a majority of the claims against MGM are due to MGM's poor security and negligence in allowing Paddock on using non-public elevators to transport several duffle bags of ammunition. Also, they failed to check in on the room despite it having a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it for over 48 hours. There's other claims arising out of MGM's policies and procedures, but those are the one's I can think of off top of my head. Trying to impute immunity through the security hired for the fairgrounds is a real stretch. Paddock was on Mandalay Bay property. CSC had no actual control or dominion over that property. Had Paddock done all the shooting from the fairgrounds property, I could see this argument by MGM actually working (possibly). But with the actual facts of what really happened (as well as what is claimed) I do not think MGM has a pot to piss in.
Also, I used to have mad respect for Pisanelli Bice because they were the guys going after the bigwigs on the strip. Now they are doing their bidding against the actual victims? I guess the hourly billing was too good to pass up.
But hey what do I know, I am just Boyd Grad (non-2013)
Just read the complaint. I am no expert, but it seems like a Hail Mary. Is MGM really that desperate this early in the fight?
You figure the insurance companies wanted to be in federal court rather than state court – smart move considering Eglet's fundraising influence in state court. So, they come up with this federal question immunity issue and run it up the flag pole. I think it's actually kind of innovative. Any good defense lawyer worth his salt will try and get into federal court every single time. The issue is going to be the optics of suing (even though they are asking for dec. relief on an immunity issue) thousands of victims. That PR hit will be massive.
I have insurance company reps come in to town for trials, mediations, depos, audits, etc. They always ask "where should I stay?" I would typically list Wynn, Venetian, MGM. I will not longer include MGM in that list. F*ck MGM.
This quote from the RJ is hilarious:
[Eglet] viewed the decision to file the complaints in federal court as a “blatant display of judge shopping” that “quite frankly verges on unethical.”
“I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like,” he said. “It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”
Eglet thought he had judge shopping down to a science – now his world has been rocked. Ironically, I'm not surprised that Eglet would stoop to the level of calling opposing counsel unethical for engaging in his arena.
IMO, Judge Gordon and Magistrate Leen are two of the best judges in the state. It will be interesting to see how they handle this.
Agree with 9:34. Hypocrisy. Eglet is wrong person to be making these comments. It would have been better if he had one of the injured victims offer the quotes.
Yes, some may view it as ironic that he is the messenger to express such outrage.
But the more telling part of the quote is that attorneys should avoid speaking in absolutes. To say it is the most outrageous thing he has ever seen in his practice of law is generally an approach which should be avoided at all costs–unless it truly is the most outrageous thing he has seen in practice.
I remember seeing an attorney rant and rave, kicking furniture, flinging his reading glasses on the table, and loudly proclaiming to the judge that "this is the most outrageous thing I have seen in my over 20 years of practice." Opposing counsel then pointed out that earlier in the week that very same attorney was in another department down the hall angrily pronouncing that some case, and how it was proceeding, was "the most outrageous perversion of justice I've seen in my over 20 years of practice."
I guess the lesson is that hyperbole is best to avoid.
Pisanelli Bice offices are on the Third Floor of Eglet's building. Should make for some interesting elevator conversations.
Agree with 9:34 about Judge Gordon and Magistrate Judge Leen being two of the best judges in the state.
Its hilarious to hear Eglet say it, but only to us in the legal field. IT will play very well in the newspaper and on TV when the general public reads and sees it.
What judges does Eglet own? One is running for the Nevada Supreme Court.
Rhetorical question?
This will be an unmitigated PR disaster for MGM.
Don't they have a huge problem with ripeness? According to their Complaint, there are no active lawsuits pending.
For declaratory relief you don't need an active lawsuit, you just need a threat that is sufficient to require the court's intervention to declare the rights of the parties. That's why they tell you to be careful with overly aggressive demand letters, they might trigger a dec. relief action.
This is very different than now Kirk Kerkorian handled the lawsuits arising out of the 1980 MGM Grand fire. Kerkorian paid some claims personally out of pocket and took the side of the victims, suing the insurance companies. Yes, there are important differences legally and factually between the tragedies, but if Kerkorian were alive and running MGM, this is not how he would handle it, I guarantee it.
Off topic, but I seem to remember somebody on this blog jumping down my throat about six months ago when I even mentioned the word treason in the same sentence as our noble leader Donald J. Trump. Something about jumping to conclusions. After the NATO fiasco and the Helsinki salad tossing conference, is there any reasonable conclusion other than Russia absolutely has something on Trump and is using Trump to destroy Western alliances that have kept Russia in check? Asking for a friend.
Why is Russia our enemy? Why do we need NATO? N. Korea was our enemy since the 1950s, but with recent events may be on the path to being an ally, much like Vietnam. It is the media, neocons and the industrial military complex that want/need us to have nation states be our enemies to keep the military going strong to the tune of $700 billion/yearly. For what? Can you name one country that is a viable threat to invade or attack our homeland?
Are you really comparing North Korea to Russia? In terms of military strength, economy, natural resources, government, espionage, anything? There is literally no comparison.
So what is the threat from Russia, really? Will they launch an invasion? Will they start a nuclear war? Or are they conducting a foreign policy much like our own? Look at their and our respective histories since WWII, when it comes to foreign policy. Always dictating to other nations how to run their own houses and nation building. To what end? Someone stated in another post that two wrongs do no make a right. That is crap. Until we Americans stop trying to police the world and bring our troops home from foreign conflicts and military bases and stop meddling in other nations' domestic politics, we cannot sit back and complain about Putin wanting to influence our elections. He is just doing what we have been doing for the past century.
The threat from Russia is that it appears they succeeded in getting a blackmailed yes man elected into our nation's highest public office. I think your definition of threat is too narrowly anchored to a traditional sense of physical war. One of the better ways to destroy a rival power (and one that will draw less international blowback) is to destroy its internal policies and processes that make it functional. Y'know, relative social harmony, freedom of press, those kinds of things.
Are you saying you support Russia propping up a puppet US President who will work to destroy our country's influence in the world? We should just turn a blind eye to our democracy being hijacked by a foreign power?
Are you saying you support a President who will sit idle and allow Russia or any other country to continue to influence our elections?
"We believe the European Union counties are our friends and the Russians are not," McConnell told reporters. "We understand the Russian threat."
Let the backpedaling and the excuses for Trump's siding with the KGB over his own FBI/CIA/NSA begin.
I hate Trump a lot, but the treason thing is laughable from a legal perspective. Treason requires aiding "the enemy." But that has only ever meant "people the US is literally in a shooting war with" (the Japanese/Germans during World War II, the Confederacy, and a couple of peasant rebellions right after the Revolution). Sure, the Russian government does lots of evil stuff, and stuff that's adverse to US interests. But that doesn't make it "an enemy", any more than the US under Trump is "an enemy" of the EU or Mexico.
Plus, to the extent that we should care about the Framers' original intent, they defined treason in an extremely narrow sense. Because their experience from England was that the King used "treason" as an emotionally laden bludgeon to attack his political opponents, and that led to all kinds of abuses. If we start broadening the definition of treason to include Trump, then future Presidents (or just Trump!) will be able to use it for all kinds of other bad stuff. (Cf. some of the state anti-treason laws, which have been used to prosecute all kinds of stupid stuff. Did you know that in the 1920s, West Virginia convicted a coal miner of treason for organizing a strike?)
Trump has done lots of dumb and illegal stuff, and cozying up to Putin is certainly dumb and quite possibly illegal. But it's manifestly not treason, and I don't think it helps anything to froth about how it is.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” -Cicero
Hey 12:16 and 1:04, that is the threat from Russia.
@1:04 So you are content to just let Russia intervene in our elections? Just because we have done it before doesn't mean we should sit back and let others do it to us.
If we are throwing out quotes then Cicero has nothing on the only true 21st century philosopher Kanye: “Okay, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.”
We need Geraldo Rivera to host a PPV event where the Trump Pee-Pee Tape is broadcast. Geraldo could borrow from his playbook for Al Capone's Vault and turn a 3 minute tape into 3 hours. This event would raise enough money to house and feed all of the undocumented families for a few years.
Why do we want to house and feed all of the undocumented families for a few years? That Sanchez lady running for Congress in NY wants to abolish ICE and have open borders. She also wants free college education and healthcare for everyone. Who will be responsible for paying for all these benefits? If the world knows that the USA will accept all families and provide housing and food, then the whole world will show up at our door in no time.
Do you mean that Ocasio-Cortez? I mean I guess if you can't even remember the correct Latino last name, we've pretty much established your POV here and there's not much more to say.
That Sanchez lady. Wow.
Vote for Pedro Sanchez.
Ok. Got the name wrong. Have you addressed the issues raised about abolishing ICE, open borders, free college and healthcare for everyone? Oh, and we are now $22 trillion in debt and counting. Attack the poster for getting the name wrong and implying racism is well founded, not.
Vote for Pedro – Napoleon
Vote for Thelma Harper.
abolishing ICE is as stupid as the tea party abolishing the IRS
"Abolish ice tea" Class of Boyd 2013
Well, 2:26 either 11:44 is a stupid and uniformed person who spouted off about a congressional candidate without even knowing her name or actual positions, or he's a big fat racist who substitutes one Latino surname for another as a method of showing their utter contempt for anybody with Latino heritage, so no, I'm not going to engage. Because either way 11:44 doesn't deserve it. I'll just point and laugh because that's all the respect such a stupid comment should get.
The idea that Putin is just like us is absurd. He has no reservations about incarcerating or murdering anyone who stands up to him. He is opposed to a free press, and he apologetically demands that he receive a cut of the action, lining his pockets with money which should go to his people. Protest and you could die. The fact that Trump admires him and seeks to emulate him should terrify every American.
This.
How many leaders in the world are there that have no reservations about incarcerating or murdering anyone who stands up to them? Quite a few. So based on your reasoning we need to treat all such leaders as enemies and their respective nations as enemies as well. Furthermore, we need to impose sanctions and live by the threat of war and be ready to go on the offensive. This includes one of our largest trading partners, China.
Do people really believe that Putin has something on Trump to blackmail him with? Do you really believe he is a puppet, of anyone? Look at his personality. He loves power and powerful men. That is what he wants to be. They do not have anything on him. He is doing this by his own free will. Everybody is freaking out that Trump is going to turn USA into an oligarchy. This is just nuts. Chill out and take a breath. The media was playing up the threat from N. Korea when they were firing off missiles over Japan. No what's happening in southeast Asia? pretty quite there. Perhaps if our foreign policy can be shifted towards normalizing relations with other nations opening up economic relations (trading) with our "enemies," we will not have to live under the perceived threats fostered by the media, partisan politics, and the department of defense.
What's happening in SE Asia? Chinese military buildup in the seas. Our strongest and most steadfast ally in the region – Australia – getting increasingly pressured by China and screwed by the Cheetoh in Chief. The idiotic withdrawal from the TPP, resulting in a boost to Chinese influence in trade, and a substantial reduction in the US's. There is real damage being done, but Trump is either too stupid to realize it, or complicit. And, hey, what did we just promise? Stopping war games? Whose interests did that serve?
2:44, yes I do suspect that. Look at just about every decision Trump has made, who benefits? Russia. It quacks like a duck.
Why are you saying he is a duck? Class of Boyd 2013
The PR is not looking great so far:
BBC – Las Vegas shooting: Mandalay Bay hotel owner sues 1,000 victims
NBC – Mandalay Bay owner files complaint against victims of Las Vegas shooting
Chicago Trib – MGM sues Las Vegas massacre victims in hopes of limiting liability
ABC – MGM Resorts reportedly files lawsuits against Las Vegas mass shooting victims to avoid liability
Add in
AP — MGM sues Vegas mass shooting victims, argues it isn't liable
HuffPost — Mandalay Bay Owner Sues Las Vegas Shooting Victims
The Yahoo Public Comments today are filled with pretty amazing analysis and advice to all the Defendants to "get of[sic] their buts and get jobs!"
Sorry if this sounds daft, but I have a ground level question as to the defense of this matter for all the Route 91 victims here. The Complaint is suing all of these separate individuals for Dec Relief on liability.
Is this the sort of action that the legal costs of Defendants' insurance would somehow cover (i.e. car accident defense) or is this something that they would somehow be paying out of pocket to retain Counsel to respond to the Complaint? (Perhaps like a simple breach of contract action where counsel/insurance wasn't involved)
I'd imagine if they have to actually retain someone, 90% of the Defts wouldn't be able to afford Counsel. Alternatively would there be somekind of group representation to keep this pseudo manageable rather than conceivably having hundreds of firms enter. Thanks.
I noted that about 1/4 or so of those persons were not involved in litigation yet as plaintiffs so ostensibly they don't have Counsel they can immediately turn to for this.
I don't do civil stuff so I don't actually know this: but one of my initial thoughts was that one of MGM's strategic goals here was to preemptively make this a class-action suit instead of a bunch of little individual suits. Cheaper to fight them all at once, and easier to use the last couple decades of SCOTUS precedent on class-actions in order to avoid paying out.
This can't be a class as damages are not the same. It can be a collective and will end up in a state MDL.
I am thinking there may be some cancellations at MGM properties. There are plenty of other places to stay.
This is MGM bullshit. I felt bad about staying at MGM property after the shooting. I will never go to Mandalay Bay, and I will never stay and game at your properties.
In the months after the shooting I have gone out of my way to shop/eat at Mandalay Bay. I felt bad for the shops/employees there and wanted to show a bit of community support. Sorry guys, no more.
Your money, your way. My money, my way.
MGM giving jobs away to robots, wth?
Hey folks, let's talk about the Mandatory Malpractice ADKT tomorrow. Can the blog or someone post the link to live stream the arguments. Starts at 3:00 on July 18th. I tried to get on the Supreme Court site last time for the Random Audit and could not get on. Do not want to miss this one.
I don't do any PI, so maybe some people could answer some questions for me. The NJA is for this. Is that because they are driven or controlled by larger firms? Given that Robert Eglet has so much power, won't the Justices feel obligated to obey him on this issue?
This is being held live in both the NSC Las Vegas Courtroom and the NSC Carson City courtroom with video link between the two.
The NJA are made up of little Eglet wannabes. I am not sure who is worse.
Yes, if you are unable to attend the live presentation at the NSC Courtrooms in Vegas or Carson, you have to rely on live streaming. Any one have link to accomplish that on their desktop or tablet??
NJA doesn't take a position. Eglet is not even on the board of NJA.
NJA most assuredly did take a position, via comments made by Brian Nettles. They are for mandatory insurance.
NJA filed a letter in support. Yes NJA took a position.
Fuck the NJA and Eglet. Stop referring cases to him.
All legal arguments and discussions aside this is a terrible PR move.
Someone explain to me how this is an improvement. Last month, the electron-pushers at the EDJC clerk's office decided that e-service should be done upon submission of a document, not upon the clerk's acceptance of the document. Okay, I dig that, no more waiting for stuff sitting in the clerk's queue for days on end. Except now there isn't notification of the clerk's acceptance of the document, along with a link to the file-stamped copy of the document. On the whole, not getting file-stamped copies of documents is not an improvement. One step forward, nine steps backward.
You can still get them – you just have to keep going back and clicking the same link you got in the submission notification.
So what used to be a one step process is now at least a two step process, manually checking to see the document was accepted. This makes no sense, especially since notices of hearing will be filled in by the clerk and no separate notice will be automatically generated and sent by the e-filing system.
Call Jeff Wells.
I'm going to take an unpopular position here, but I think the MGM complaint was a really good idea. You have 1000+ victims, some of which were killed, many of which were maimed. Assuming an average exposure of $100,000 per claimant, which is conservative, you are looking at $100,000,000 in liability. While this is bad PR for a couple of days, Trump will do something retarded and everyone will forget about this by next Monday. They certainly aren't going to lose $100,000,000 in revenue over this. In the meantime, you have arguably the best attorney in the state litigating all these claims in one favorable vanue, with one set of deadlines, and one trial, which will move at the snail's pace that large federal cases move at. Also, from my experience, most plaintiff's attorneys don't know how to navigate federal court.
Ugh…*venue
From the defense perspective, I agree. Eglet is shouting because he has no interest trying these cases in federal court, particularly with the civil jury differences there. But, MGM's GC better be able to withstand the withering criticism he'll get from Board members.
There is 900 million in insurance
Who is the buffoon?
All men. All stupid.
Anyone know of a Las Vegas attorney who isn't involved in a 1 October lawsuit and would be willing to talk with a reporter about the logic of this filing?
Anybody but Eglet.
Marisa Border.
Call Polsenberg. He smiles pretty.
Call Dean Claggett. He is threatening to foreclose on our homes at Lampliht Village.
That is Sean Claggett. Unfortunately Channel 13 ran puff pieces for Sean so….well I guess you can always call Sean the Reptile Guy.
It is Dean Claggett. He likes to wear three piece suits. Him and Cadish own Boyd.
Enough said, call Ed
Alexis Plunkett.
Please call Bobby Misko. He is very one on one
I've seen a lot of criticism of media coverage of legal issues on this blog. Here you had a reporter seeking guidance and recommendations to try to make his report better and he just gets a lot of smart ass answers. When it comes to the press, too often the legal community is its own worst enemy.
Way to go, Wolfson, only took you 7 months to file charges on the Pomeranian case. 20 felonies reduced to 1. Way to go, Wolfson.