What Happened in the MGM Fire Case?
With so many injurie and deaths in a hotel, in a tourism mecca, lawsuits were filed in jurisdictions throughout the country. Nearly 1,300 injury and wrongful death claims were filed against MGM Resorts, Otis Elevator, Continental Mechanical Corp., Martin J. Stern Architect and Associates, and more.
Arguments included laxed safety standards for hotels and casinos, wrongful death, and injury claims. Of the hundreds of personal injury lawsuits, injured parties hundreds of millions in damages. MGM Grand Hotel and other defendants “settled most of the suits for a total of $138 million.”
$92.4 million of that went to settle 67 wrongful death claims, and $40.5 million went to the personal injury claims, and $2 million was put toward property damage and business loss claims.
Did the MGM Grand Hotel Fire Case Change Anything?
Because the case was settled out of court, the Hartman v. Pfizer case didn’t have a massive impact on the drug industry. As a matter of fact, Pfizer was brought to court several more times for wrongful death cases.
Yes! As they rebuilt the MGM Grand Hotel, extensive fire safety features were put into place, including additional sprinklers, an automatic fire alarm system, and a modified ventilation system to help stop fire from spreading through air conditioning.
Additionally, less than a week after the fire, the Governor of Nevada put together a commission that would later determine that older hotels would need to update their fire prevention systems to meet higher standards.
What Made the MGM Grand Fire Case Unique?
Because Las Vegas is known for its tourism, and because so many non-Nevadans were injured in the fire and due to smoke inhalation, the MGM Grand Fire Lawsuit was incredibly unique, as multiple out-of-state plaintiffs required legal services.
In addition, the case didn’t just bring up issues with fire safety codes and minimum sprinkler usage, but it also brought up building codes, architectural flaws in building designs, and a clear need for higher standards in hotel structures to avoid further fires.