Backus v. State

In Backus v. State, 1 CA-CV 07-0640 and 1 CA-CV 07-0671, 204 P.3d 399, 2008 WL 2764601 (Ariz. App. July 17, 2008), the Court analyzed the statutory requirements of section 12-821.01(A) and held that short of providing no facts to support the claim amount, the statute did not require a claimant to provide "sufficient" facts to support the amount. The court reasoned that the second sentence of the statute (nature of the claim) required "sufficient facts" for the public entity or employee to understand the basis of the claim, but the third sentence dealing with facts which "supported" the amount claimed, did not contain the word "sufficient." As the court noted, it should not read the "sufficient" language from the second sentence into the third sentence. The court also held that under Deer Valley, 214 Ariz. at 297 n.3, P 11, 152 P.3d at 494 n.3, the most that can be read into the third sentence is that when no facts support the amount claimed, the notice is insufficient. Backus, at 5, P 18.