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.
For the Illinois village once known as Charleston, see Brimfield, Illinois. Charleston is a city in and the county seat of Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 21,039 as of the 2000 census. The city is home to Eastern Illinois University and has close ties with its neighbor Mattoon, Illinois. Both are principal cities of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.