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.
Westwood (nicknamed "The Hub of the Pascack Valley") is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,999. Westwood was officially incorporated as a borough on May 8, 1894, from portions of Washington Township, early during the Boroughitis phenomenon then sweeping through Bergen County. Isaac D. Bogert served as the first mayor of the Borough. In April 1909, the area of Westwood was enlarged through the annexation of the 'Old Hook' section of the borough of Emerson, and on September 24, 1957, portions of the borough were exchanged with Emerson.