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.
The village of Steger (35 miles south of Chicago) lies along the dividing line on the south end of Cook County and north end of Will County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 9,682 at the 2000 census, and estimated to be 10,409 as of 2005.