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.
Barker is an unincorporated community in western Harris County, Texas, United States. It lies along local roads off Interstate 10 and seventeen miles west of downtown Houston. Its elevation is 102 feet (31 m), and it is located at 29°47′4″N 95°41′6″W / 29.78444°N 95.685°W / 29.78444; -95.685 (29.7843955, -95.6849469). Barker was originally built along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, which built through the area in 1895; the community was named for Ed Barker, a railroad contractor. The community's first postmaster was appointed in 1898. Although Barker was originally an agricultural community, the area is now primarily residential.