In 1987 Walter Stone and his wife divorced in Virginia. In 1994 while their minor daughter was visiting Stone at his Mississippi home, his exwife informed him she was dying of brain cancer. He let the daughter-identified only as S.P.S.-return and stay with her mother until the latter died. The mother said that, on her death, she wanted custody of S.P.S. to go to her half-sister, but Wall said he would take custody as the child's father. Several of the the mother's relatives allegedly conspired to remove S.P.S. to Colorado, with part of the conspiracy allegedly occurring in Florida. (One of the relatives was a resident of Florida.) The father sued them under state law, though the case was heard in federal court because of its interstate nature. The federal judge dismissed the case. On appeal, the federal Eleventh Circuit Court determined that there was no controlling case law and certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court.