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.
Pasadena is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Harris County, 15th-largest in Texas, and 159th largest in the United States. The area was founded in 1893 by John H. Burnett of Galveston. Burnett named the area after Pasadena, California because he thought the vegetation was similar. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city's population was 141,674. As of 2007, it is estimated to be at 152,968. The Pasadena Volunteer Fire Department is the largest all volunteer municipal fire department in the United States.