Sarah Elizabeth Woodruff ex rel. Ethan Woodruff et al. v. Ford Motor Company et al.

In this appeal, we hold that this Court’s holding in Coffman v. Armstrong International, Inc., 615 S.W.3d 888 (Tenn. 2021), does not mandate dismissal as a matter of law of the plaintiff’s failure-to-warn claims. Here, the plaintiff filed a product liability lawsuit under the Tennessee Products Liability Act against the defendant manufacturer of a child’s booster seat. The lawsuit claimed the defendant was required to warn of risks of using the booster seat in combination with a seatbelt extender, manufactured by another defendant, but failed to do so. The defendant moved for summary judgment on the grounds that Coffman bars the plaintiff’s failure-to-warn claims for risks associated with using the defendant’s product with another manufacturer’s product. The trial court granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the plaintiff’s claim. The Court of Appeals affirmed and held that Coffman bars the plaintiff’s claims as a matter of law. We reverse the Court of Appeals and clarify that the holding in Coffman does not mandate dismissal of the plaintiff’s failure-to-warn claims as a matter of law. Accordingly, we reverse and remand the case to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings.