An accident severed four fingers off the right hand of Robert Nicastro, who was operating a recycling machine used to cut scrap metal.

[1] Nicastro sued J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd., the British company, and its U.S. distributor, McIntyre Machinery America, Ltd., in the Bergen County vicinage of the Law Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, under a strict product liability theory.

[2] The British parent company moved to dismiss the suit against it for lack of personal jurisdiction; the Law Division granted the motion.

According to Justice Kennedy's plurality opinion, there were insufficient facts to show that J. McIntyre Machinery, the British company, targeted New Jersey specifically.

Rather than announce a broad rule, Breyer determined that based on the facts of this specific case New Jersey did not have jurisdiction because so few machines wound up in the state.