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.
Jermyn, known as "The Birthplace of First Aid in America," is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, on the Lackawanna River, 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Scranton. A productive anthracite coal field was in the region in 1900 when 2,567 people lived here. In 1910, 3,158 residents of Jermyn were tallied. In the early years of the twentieth century, coal mines, cut-glass works, silk, powder, grist, planing, and saw mills, bottling works, and fertilizer factories dotted the borough. The population was 2,287 at the 2000 census. Jermyn is the mailing address of the Lakeland School District. The section of town east of the Lackawanna River and west of the small section of Archbald known as "Nebraska", East Jermyn is commonly referred to as "Calico Lane" or "The Lane".