The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Arizona
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Ariz. Const. art. IV; art. V, sec. 7
- Issued
- 2021-04-05 Apr. 5, 2021
- Effective
- general effective date Sept. 29, 2021; § 2: 'This act applies retroactively to from and after March 10, 2020'; § 12-515(B) applies to claims for acts or omissions 'on or after March 11, 2020' (read as 2021-09-29)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 29, 2021 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- persons and 'providers': any person who furnishes consumer or business goods or services or entertainment; educational institutions; school districts and charter schools; property owners, managers, lessors and lessees; nonprofit organizations; religious institutions; the State and local governments; health professionals and health care institutions (§ 12-516)
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Arizona DUT-AZ
Operative words
A person or provider is presumed to have acted in good faith if the person or provider adopted and implemented reasonable policies related to the public health pandemic.... Sec. 2. Retroactivity. This act applies retroactively to from and after March 10, 2020.
Penalty
none as such; the consequence of operating without 'reasonable policies related to the public health pandemic' is loss of the presumption of good faith and of the clear-and-convincing, wilful-misconduct-or-gross-negligence shield, leaving the business to ordinary negligence liability
What it required
Conditioned the pandemic liability shield on good faith and made 'reasonable policies related to the public health pandemic' the statutory presumption of good faith, retroactive to the first day of the emergency, so that the adoption and implementation of such policies became the legal standard of care for every business open to customers, tenants, guests or the public.
Retrieval noteApproved by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State April 5, 2021 (chaptered version, 'H Ver of SB1377'). § 12-515(C) excludes claims 'subject to title 23, chapter 6' (workers' compensation), so the shield left the employer's duties to its own employees under A.R.S. § 23-403 untouched. § 12-516(B)(3) extends the health-care shield to 'altering a person's diagnosis or treatment in response to an order, directive or guideline that is issued by the federal government, this state or a local government,' a legislative recognition that guidelines directed conduct. The 'reasonable policies' the statute presumes are the policies EO 2020-36 para. 5 and EO 2020-40 para. 3 had required of every employer since May and June 2020 (Exs. AZ-019, AZ-020; DUT-AZ-013).