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.
Pearl is a village in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 187 at the 2000 census. The village, settled in the late 1800s, is named after pearl buttons drilled from the large supply of native mussels that once lived in the nearby Illinois River.