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.
Sheffield is a village in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 946 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sheffield was founded by Joseph E. Sheffield and Henry Farnam in 1852. Sheffield and Farnam constructed the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, and the town site was intended as a coaling station for trains. According to Farnam, he and Sheffield flipped a coin to see for whom the town would be named. A monument to Joseph E. Sheffield, and the Rock Island Railroad stands today in Sheffield's town square.