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.
Scotland, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is a small town near the southernmost end of the state, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. There is a boys' summer camp, operated by a police department. Nearby are the tiny town of Ridge and Point Lookout beach, the former site of a Civil War prison camp.