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.
Cohoes is a city located at the northeast corner of Albany County New York, USA. It is called the "Spindle City" because of the importance of textile production to its growth. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 15,521. The name was believed to have arisen from a Mohawk expression, Ga-ha-oose, referring to the Cohoes Falls and meaning "Place of the Falling Canoe," an interpretation originated by Horatio Gates Spafford in his 1823 publication "A Gazetteer of the State of New York". Later historians posited that the name is derived from the Algonquin "Cohos," which is a place name based on a word meaning "Pine tree."