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.
Home is an unincorporated village located in Rayne Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Although it is not tracked by the US Census Bureau, Home has been assigned the ZIP code 15747 and is a part of the telephone area code 724. The community received its name because its first post office was located in the "home" of postmaster Hugh Cannon in 1834. The town became famous as the setting for an episode of the television show The X-Files entitled "Home" which originally aired on October 11, 1996. In the episode, Home is depicted as an idyllic "Mayberry" like town clouded by a reclusive local family with a dark secret. Although the episode was set in the town or a place like it, it was actually filmed near Fort Langley, British Columbia. The author Edward Abbey moved to Home in 1931, having been born in the Indiana hospital and spending the first four-and-a-half years in other towns and villages in the area. Abbey, known for his great depictions of nature and its beauty, was said to have gotten much of his inspiration from growing up in Home.