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.
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Livingston County, Missouri, United States. The population was 8,968 at the 2000 census. The name "Chillicothe" is Shawnee for "big town", and was named after their Chillicothe, located since 1774 about a mile from the present-day city. Chillicothe is one of only two cities named in the world-famous song "Hooray for Hollywood" that opens the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards (The Oscars). The 1937 song (lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Richard A. Whiting) contains in the second verse: "Hooray for Hollywood! That phony, super Coney, Hollywood. They come from Chilicothes and Padukahs... " Interestingly both cities were misspelled in the original lyrics. The correct spellings are, of course, "Chillicothe" and "Paducah".