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.
Kenova is a city in Wayne County, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers. The name of the town comes from its unique position where the borders of Kentucky, Ohio, and (West) Virginia meet. Founded in 1859 but not incorporated until 1894, the town's early history and development was centered around the railroad industry. It is home to a major Norfolk Southern Ohio River Bridge. CSX Transportation's former Chesapeake and Ohio Kanawha Subdivision travels through the town as well. The population of Kenova was 3,485 at the 2000 census. Kenova is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649. The city is also near the site of the Southern Airways Flight 932 aviation disaster. In 1970, a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed on a hillside on approach to the Tri-State Airport, killing all on board. A movie about the tragedy, We Are Marshall, was released in 2006.