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.
Essex is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, 26 miles north of Boston. The population was 3,267 at the 2000 census. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Essex.