But the jury in the civil trial ruled unanimously that Cinemark had no reason to expect a mass shooting was imminent.
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Cinemark attorney Kevin Taylor said he sympathizes with the victims but that justice was done when gunman James Holmes was convicted a year ago.
A separate case against the theater filed in federal court is still pending and is scheduled for trial in July.
Jurors on Thursday quickly sided with the nation’s third-largest movie theater chain, finding there was no way the company could have safeguarded against the attack and is not responsible for victims’ life-altering injuries that require psychiatric care, medical equipment, prosthetic limbs, occupational and speech therapy, and other treatment.
The decision is the first in a trial against theater chain Cinemark stemming from the 2012 shooting, which also wounded 70 people.
They also claimed that a silent alarm should have been activated when Holmes slipped into the auditorium through an emergency exit and opened fire.
A jury has determined that Cinemark is not liable for the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.
The company argued that no security measures would have predicted or stopped the armor-clad Holmes. “Mr. Holmes was clearly unpredictable, unforeseeable, unpreventable and unstoppable”.
Lawyers representing the 27 plaintiffs in the civil case had argued that Cinemark failed to take adequate security measures in anticipation of such an attack. In August previous year, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, avoiding the death penalty.
“This is an unjust verdict”, said plaintiffs attorney Marc Bern after the decision was read out. Taylor said they were not needed for the Thursday premiere in suburban Aurora, though the theater staffed guards on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The victims say Cinemark’s lax security allowed for the rampage.
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Other victims have filed a lawsuit alleging Holmes’ psychiatrist at the University of Colorado should have done more to stop the attack, such as detaining Holmes after he disclosed his homicidal thoughts.
