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.
Bridgeport is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 18 miles (29 km) north of Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River. The old-time industries were paper, flour, cotton, and woolen mills, steel works, brickyards, etc. Bridgeport is six miles (10 km) east of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington and the Continental Army passed through Bridgeport on their way to their winter encampment in Valley Forge. 3,097 people lived in Bridgeport in 1900; 3,860 in 1910; and 5,904 in 1940. The population was 4,371 at the 2000 census.