[2] On May 13, 1968, Helmut Kurt Bohm, an administrative employee of the University of Nevada-Reno, drove a university-owned car to pick up office supplies at a location in California.

On his way back to Reno, Bohm lost control of his car during a rainstorm on Interstate 80 near Penryn, California.

The Superior Court denied this motion, and in 1976 a jury awarded the Halls $1,150,000 in damages.

Thus, it concluded that the doctrine of sovereign immunity, although well established, was nothing "more than a matter of comity", and upheld the original ruling.

[7] In a dissenting opinion, Justice Blackmun wrote that the decision could have sweeping consequences: "I suspect that the Court has opened the door to avenues of liability and interstate retaliation that will prove unsettling and upsetting for our federal system.