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.
Free Union is a small unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia, United States, ten miles north-northwest of Charlottesville. It has a small central business district (pictured at right) consisting of a private school, a doctor's office, a post office, a country store, a homebuilder, an automobile repair shop, and several dozen homes. Otherwise it is entirely rural in character.