Class actions are lawsuits brought by a representative member(s) of a large group of persons on behalf of all the members of the group who have suffered identical or similar harm for which the same defendant may be liable -- such as a defective product class action against a manufacturer or an employment discrimination class action against a large company.
Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek Rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Calhoun county. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,364. Battle Creek, known as the "Cereal City", is the world headquarters of Kellogg Company, founded by Will Keith Kellogg in 1906, whose brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, invented cold breakfast cereal as an alternative to the traditional meat-based breakfast. It is also the home of Post Cereals, which was part of General Foods Corporation at one time, then Kraft Foods, and is now part of Ralcorp. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, was featured in the T.C. Boyle novel The Road to Wellville and the movie of the same name. The Battle Creek Sanitarium, which is now the Battle Creek Federal Center building, is still one of the tallest buildings in Battle Creek. This building is a historical marker to the the the city and the state of Michigan. In 1982, voters approved merging Battle Creek Township with the city of Battle Creek, under pressure from Kellogg Company, which threatened to move its headquarters away from Battle Creek if the city and township did not merge. Battle Creek is currently the third-largest city in Michigan by area, after Detroit and Grand Rapids.