BRANDON COLEMAN ET AL. v. CBL & ASSOCIATES, INC. ET AL. - Articles

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BRANDON COLEMAN ET AL. v. CBL & ASSOCIATES, INC. ET AL.

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Apr 1, 2026

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1: Scott M. Shaw and S. Bray Wilson, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellants, CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. and CBL & Associates, Inc.

Attorneys 2: Andrew H. Williamson and Larry J. Peters, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellees, Brandon Coleman and Jaden Lee.

Judge(s): DAVIS

This interlocutory appeal concerns the relation back doctrine under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 15.03. The plaintiffs sued a corporate entity for premises liability. The corporate defendant successfully moved for summary judgment on grounds that it did not own the subject property. The plaintiffs then filed a motion to alter or amend in which they sought leave to amend their complaint to name a separate corporate entity as a defendant. The trial court granted the plaintiffs’ motion, finding that the initial mistake was a misnomer and that the plaintiffs were not seeking to add a new party even though the defendant to be added was a distinct corporate entity. The defendants sought permission to file an interlocutory appeal, which the trial court granted. The record contains no evidence that the separate corporate entity named by the plaintiffs in their amended pleading received timely notice of the plaintiffs’ lawsuit. We therefore reverse the judgment of the trial court.

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