Billy Tyne, Jr., and Dale Murphy were lost at sea in October 1991 when their commercial fishing vessel, the Andrea Gail, apparently sank during a violent storm. A movie, The Perfect Storm, later was filmed about this event and received gross earnings in excess of $150 million. Tyne and Murphy's surviving family and one former crew member sued under a Florida statute prohibiting the commercial use of people's names or likenesses without their permission. The trial court ruled in favor of Time Warner but, on appeal, the federal Eleventh Circuit Court certified a question to the Florida Supreme Court on the proper interpretation of the statute.