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Cinemark Theater Chain Files Lawsuit Against Aurora, Colorado, Shooting Victims

By Nick Younker
Published on: 09:45 PST, Jun 30, 2016

Cinemark is the national theater chain that owns the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where a murderer by the name of James Holmes killed 12 people and injured scores of others. Victims of the massacre and their families had filed a lawsuit against the theater chain, but it was lost in the courts. Now, Cinemark has filed a lawsuit of their own – against the victims and their families, to the sum of nearly $700,000.

The plaintiffs in the original lawsuit against Cinemark, who were attempting to hold the theater chain responsible for the massacre, included victims of the shooting and those families of the deceased from the rampage. Although the lawsuit did not hold the theater chain solely responsible for the mass-murder at their Aurora, Colorado, location, it did seek damages for partial responsibility of the massacre that took so many lives and ruined so many others.

The lawsuit dragged on through civil court in Colorado for several years. But on May 19, the jury came back with a unanimous decision that Cinemark was not even partially responsible for the massacre at their theater chain.

The plaintiff’s loss in the lawsuit, which was expected to be appealed by a federal judge, has suffered yet another blow, according to Deadline. On June 24, Cinemark was able to squash that effort to appeal and the federal case was dismissed. Now Cinemark is seeking the damages incurred by the company as a result of the plaintiffs lawsuit, which included families of the deceased and people who were seriously wounded in the raging massacre.

The damages sought in the new lawsuit that Cinemark has filed against the victims comes to the sum of $699,187.13, to be exact. It is said that these are the costs that Cinemark incurred by fighting against the plaintiffs for financial responsibility for the massacre that happened at one of their theater chains.

When Cinemark was able to get the federal appeal thrown out, U.S. District Judge R. Brook Jackson wrote out a description in his ruling against the victims and their families of the massacre.

“The Court concludes that a reasonable jury could not plausibly find that Cinemark’s actions or inactions were a substantial factor in causing this tragedy,” Jackson wrote in his ruling.

Now that Cinemark has successfully squashed the efforts of the victims of the massacre that happened at one of their chain theaters, the company has decided to double back and take action against the plaintiffs and demand restitution in this new lawsuit against the victims and there families.

In this case, the lawsuit has merit according to the laws of Colorado and many other states. When a defendant wins their case against a civil plaintiff(s), they have the right to launch a countersuit to seek damages incurred for the cost of defending itself, namely Cinemark in this case.

In the case where Cinemark sought to have the federal case dismissed, and won, Judge Jackson also awarded reimbursement of the lawsuit to Cinemark, from the victims and their families.

All of these civil cases stem from an incident on July 20, 2012, when James Holmes walked into a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, and opened fire on the crowded Cinemark theater. Besides the film itself that was playing, the theater was dark and it was hard to see where the shots were coming from at first. Some people were killed instantly while others were seriously wounded, some of which were trying to save the lives of others in the process.

In all, there were 12 people that were killed in the massacre at the Cinemark theater in Aurora. On top of that, there were scores of others that were seriously injured.

[Photo by Dana Romanoff/Getty Images]

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