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.
Hopkinton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just over 30 miles (50 km) west and south of Boston. The town is best known as the starting point of the Boston Marathon, held annually on Patriots' Day in April, and as the home of computer storage firm EMC Corporation. For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Hopkinton, please see the article Hopkinton (CDP), Massachusetts.