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.
Pleasanton (formerly, Alisal and Pleasonton) is a city in Alameda County, California, incorporated in 1894. It is a major suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Oakland, and 6 miles west of Livermore. The population in July 2007: 66,544 at the 2000 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau.