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.
Palmdale is a city located in the north-central reaches of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The first community within the Antelope Valley to incorporate as a city (on August 24, 1962), Palmdale is separated from Los Angeles by the San Gabriel Mountain range. As of the 2000 US census, the city population was 116,670, and as of January 1, 2009, the California state department of finance estimates Palmdale proper has a total population of 151,346. According to the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance report of 2009 the Palmdale / Lancaster, CA Urbanized Area (a US Census Bureau defined term) has a population of 476,845.