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.
The city of Richmond is the county seat of Fort Bend County in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 11,081. Richmond city boundaries are joined on one hand with Sugar Land, Texas and with the city of Rosenberg on the other hand. Even though it is the county seat, thus containing most of the local government offices, it actually is one of the smaller cities in the area. Adjacent Sugar Land is the largest city in the county.