A technician at a chemical plant was injured by the failure of a device used to handle acid. The device had been built into the facility by its prior owner, Occidental, who fourteen years prior had designed the device and worked with a contractor to build it. Six years later, and eight years before the injury, Occidental sold the plant.

The lawsuit focused on the allegedly defective design, which was alleged to have been the work of an unlicensed very junior engineer. The question on appeal is what responsibility is owed by Occidental, as the former owner of the property who designed the device that caused the injury. Occidental frames this as a premises-liability concern, for which it says the former owner should not be liable. Occidental also argues that it should be protected by a 10-year statute of repose for those who construct improvements on real estate. Jenkins responds, in part, that Occidental's role in designing the device sets this case apart from situations where a contractor just implements another's design.