A mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few corporate defendants. The tort may involve, for example, personal injuries suffered by numerous plaintiffs as a result of a defective product, or a mass disaster in which there were many injured persons, such as an airplane crash, or exposure of a large group of people to toxic chemicals or pharmaceuticals.
Landers is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California. The town lies in the Homestead Valley of the Mojave Desert, northeast of Flamingo Heights. The closest large towns are Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree. The town has its own small airport, Landers Airport. Near Landers is Giant Rock, a large freestanding boulder. In the 1950s through the 1970s, it was a popular gathering point for UFO believers. UFO contactee George Van Tassel built his Integratron in the Giant Rock area. The area was also the epicenter of the Landers Earthquake, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake on June 28, 1992 which caused considerable structural damage to the surrounding area, and one death, that of a six-year-old child. The image shown most frequently on the news was the complete collapse of the northern wall of the Yucca Lanes Bowling Center. It was later revealed that this wall was in fact a temporary one designed for easy removal should the building be expanded at a future date. The ZIP Code is 92285 and the community is inside area code 760.