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.
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with an estimated population of 43,016 in 2007. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The corporate headquarters of Deere & Company is located in Moline, as is Quad City International Airport, Black Hawk College, and the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University. Moline is a retail hub for the Illinois Quad Cities, as Southpark Mall and numerous big box shopping plazas are located in the city. In the mid-1990s, the city undertook major efforts to revitalize its central business district, which had thrived throughout the 1950s and 1960s but thereafter fell into decline. Today, Moline's downtown again serves as one of the civic and recreational hubs of the Quad Cities, with many events taking place at the 12,000-seat i wireless Center (formerly known as the Mark of the Quad Cities) and at John Deere Commons.