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.
Northwood is a city in Grand Forks County, North Dakota in the United States. It is part of the "Grand Forks, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area" or "Greater Grand Forks". The population was 959 at the 2000 census. Northwood was founded in 1884. A tornado, rated EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, struck Northwood on the evening of August 26, 2007 causing destruction to the entire town and killing one person. Later on some of the buildings were burned, collapsed, or torn down because of severe damage to the buildings from the tornado.