James Holmes may not receive sole credit for the tragic shooting at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 12, 2012.
The theater chain Cinemark also faces a multi-plaintiff action from victims and their families despite efforts to have the case tossed from court. A Colorado federal judge refused Cinemark's request on Aug. 15 for the second time in a year and a half, according to Deadline.
The combined lawsuit cites Cinemark's "lack of proper security at the venue" for playing a role in the 12 deaths and 58 wounded during the late opening day screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."
Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in his order that he's "not convinced" a jury wouldn't side with the plaintiffs if this case went to trial.
"This Court is in no way holding as a matter of law that Cinemark should have known of the danger of someone entering one of its theaters through the back door and randomly shooting innocent patrons," wrote Jackson in his 17-page order denying Cinemark's motion for summary judgement, according to Deadline.
"I hold only that a court cannot grant summary judgment on what is normally a question of fact under Colorado law unless the facts so overwhelmingly and inarguably point in Cinemark's favor that it cannot be said that a reasonable jury could possibly side with the plaintiffs on that question."
Cinemark claims it could not have known a "madman's mass murder" could take place on their property. Jackson doesn't think that was a suitable excuse for a country fully aware of mass shooting deaths by 2012 in places with large gatherings, such as a movie theater.
"Although theaters had theretofore been spared a mass shooting incident, the patrons of a movie theater are, perhaps even more than students in a school or shoppers in a mall, 'sitting ducks,'" he wrote of the time prior to July 2012.
"One might reasonably believe that a mass shooting incident in a theater was likely enough (that is, not just a possibility) to be a foreseeable next step in the history of such acts by deranged individuals."
A civil action trial is supposed to begin in February. The trial will include 20 consolidated lawsuits.
The trial for James Holmes, the theater shooter, is scheduled for December. He pled not guilty by reason of insanity in May 2013.
