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.
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 56,690 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the 'Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area', which encompasses all of Cascade County. Great Falls takes its name from the series of five waterfalls that the Lewis and Clark Expedition had to portage around over a ten mile stretch, requiring 31 days of arduous labor, in their 1805-06 exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Two undeveloped parts of their portage route are included within the Great Falls Portage, a National Historic Landmark. The city is home to the C. M. Russell Museum Complex, the University of Great Falls, Giant Springs, the Roe River (world's shortest river), and the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, as well as the Great Falls Voyagers minor league baseball (formerly known as the Great Falls White Sox) team. The local newspaper is the Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls is known as the "Electric City" due to the five hydroelectric dams that are in the nearby vicinity along the Missouri River. A Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index listed Great Falls as the most affordable area of 348 markets in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.