A group of Aurora theater shooting victims will not be stuck with paying nearly $700,000 in legal fees of Cinemark after the cinema dropped its request in state court Tuesday.
Cinemark owns the Century Aurora 16, where James Holmes opened fire during the showing of "Dark Knight Rises" four years ago, killing 12 people and wounding 70 others. Some families of victims filed a civil lawsuit charging that the theater did not do enough to prevent such an incident.
The movie chain became entitled to the legal fees after Cinemark won federal and state court cases, KMGH-TV reported. The company said it never actively sought the legal fees and it was happy "to resolve this matter fully and completely without an award of costs of any kind to any party," the television station noted.
A final judge's order was never issued for the victims to pay the legal fees before Tuesday's filing in Arapahoe County District Court, The Denver Post reported. The newspaper stated that Cinemark filed the document after reaching an agreement with four victims pursing an appeal of the state court's decision, which the victims have now dropped.
"The case can now be deemed completely over," Cinemark's attorneys wrote in its filing, according to the Denver Post.
Cinemark is still dealing with a federal court case that is being appealed, according to the Denver Post. Several plaintiffs, though, made agreements with Cinemark and were dropped from the appeal, the newspaper noted.
Stephan Moton and Ashley Moser, both paralyzed in the Aurora theater attacks, remain as part of the appeal in federal court, the Post reported. The movie chain has till Sept. 20 to decide whether it wants to them to pay its legal fees.
Holmes was sentenced last year to 12 life sentences for murder and is not eligible for parole.