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.
Gridley is a village in McLean County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,411 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bloomington–Normal Metropolitan Statistical Area. Gridley is located on U.S. Route 24 about 7 miles (11 km) east of El Paso. It is also about that distance west of Chenoa. Gridley is about halfway between Interstate 39 and Interstate 55. The village of Gridley founded in 1869 and was named after General Asahel Gridley, a noted early Republican, land investor, political backer and client of Abraham Lincoln, and a descendant of a Colonel Gridley who served at the Battle of Lexington .