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.
San Luis Obispo (Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. The city, referred to locally as "SLO","SLOTOWN" and "San Luis", is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County and is adjacent to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). As of the 2006 Census Bureau estimate, the city population was 42,963 (down 2.8% from 2000). Founded in 1772, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities.