Griffith v. Valley of the Sun Recovery & Adjustment Bureau, Inc

In Griffith v. Valley of the Sun Recovery & Adjustment Bureau, Inc., 126 Ariz. 227, 613 P.2d 1283 (App. 1980), the Court considered whether a breach of the peace under the predecessor statute to A.R.S. 47-9609 constituted negligence per se. Id. at 228-29, 613 P.2d at 1284-85. The Court noted that negligence per se applied when "a specific requirement of a law or an ordinance" was violated, when a statute proscribed "certain or specific acts," or when a law provided that "a certain thing must or must not be done." Id. at 229, 613 P.2d at 1285. The Court went on to conclude that the self-help repossession statute did not provide such a level of specificity but instead simply authorized repossession if it could be accomplished without breach of the peace. Id. That conclusion, however, held only that the statute did not proscribe such specific acts that the failure to comply would be deemed to be negligence per se. Id. at 229, 613 P.2d at 1285. Instead, "each individual case must be evaluated to determine if a breach of the peace has occurred." Id. at 229, 613 P.2d at 1285.