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.
Pellston is a village in Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 771 at the 2000 census. The village is the home of Pellston Regional Airport. Its motto is "Icebox of the Nation"; Pellston recorded the state of Michigan's record low temperature, a frigid -53°F. in 1933, and every winter is regularly called out in national weather reports, along with towns like Big Piney, Wyoming, Fraser, Colorado and International Falls, Minnesota, as one of the coldest spots in the nation. The village is on the boundary between Maple River Township and McKinley Township on United States Highway 31. Interstate 75 is about 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Pellston. Mackinaw City and the Mackinac Bridge is approximately 18 miles (29 km) north and Petoskey is about 20 miles (32.2 km) southwest of the village. The University of Michigan Biological Station is on nearby Douglas Lake.