City of Mesa v. Ryan – 10/17/2024
Arizona Supreme Court holds that notice-of-claim statute, A.R.S. § 12-821.01(A), requires a settlement offer that sets forth either a specific amount or a basis for precisely calculating a specific amount.
The plaintiff was injured by a police officer’s patrol car while crossing the street on his bicycle. The plaintiff timely served notices of claim on the city and the officer, offering to settle for “$1,000,000 or the applicable [insurance] policy limits, whichever are greater.” After the parties failed to settle the claim, the plaintiff sued.
The city moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the plaintiff’s offer to settle did not comply with the notice-of-claim statute because he failed to include a specific settlement amount. The superior court denied the city’s motion. The court of appeals accepted special-action review and granted relief, reversing the superior court’s order and directing the court to dismiss the complaint.
The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the plaintiff’s settlement offer failed to satisfy A.R.S. § 12-821.01(A)’s requirement that a notice of claim contain “a specific amount for which the claim can be settled.” The Court explained that the city could not determine from reading the notices what specific amount the plaintiff would accept given its complex insurance structure, which consisted of multiple policies with different layers of coverage.
The Court emphasized that the notice-of-claim statute generally requires strict compliance, which means that a claimant must either state the exact amount he is willing to settle for or provide a clear method for precisely calculating the settlement amount. The Court warned future litigants that failure to state an exact monetary figure in the notice of claim for which the claim can be settled raises a strong risk that the notice will be found statutorily noncompliant.
Chief Justice Timmer authored the opinion, in which Vice Chief Justice Lopez and Justices Brutinel, Bolick, Beene, Montgomery, and King joined.
Posted by: Allie Karpurk