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.
Upperville is a small town in Fauquier County, Virginia, fifty miles from downtown Washington, D.C. through which Rt. 50 runs. Founded in the 1790s along Pantherskin Creek, it was originally named Carrstown by first settler Josephus Carr. Through an 1819 Act passed by the Virginia General Assembly, the name was changed to Upperville. John Updike wrote of Upperville in his sardonic 1961 poem Upon Learning That a Town Exists Called Upperville.