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.
Rockbridge is an unincorporated community in northern Ozark County, Missouri. It is the site of an old mill on spring fed Spring Creek a tributary of Bryant Creek, which still houses the post office. It is twelve miles north of Gainesville off Route 95. The town was founded in the 19th century by pioneer families from Marion County, Kentucky, led by Captain Kim Amyx. The community was burned down during the American Civil War and rebuilt after the war. Rockbridge was once the county seat of a greater Ozark County, which encompassed today's Douglas, Howell, and Ozark Counties. The community is now owned by the Rainbow Trout & Game Ranch and Rockbridge Gun Club, founded in 1954, and includes a trout fish hatchery. This community is in a karst region, with caves, springs, and natural stone bridges nearby. Just to the north along the Bryant Creek floodplain in Douglas County is Assumption Abbey, a Trappist monastery.