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Arizona Appeals Court Joins Other States In Holding COVID-19 Shutdowns Not an Excuse for Missed Rent Payments

By Riley Brennan
May 01, 2023

Joining several other state and federal decisions from around the country, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state restrictions and shutdown orders were not excuses for tenant Fitness International to miss their rent payments to its landlord Vereit Real Estate under its commercial lease.

In an April 11 opinion, Judge Samuel A. Thumma affirmed a lower court's decision granting the landlords' motion for summary judgment, after determining the applicable force majeure provisions and common law doctrines the tenants relied on didn't excuse payment obligations.

The landlords filed an action for payment after Fitness International failed to make lease payments for the months of April, May, June and August of 2020, totaling more than $900,000. In response, Fitness International "claimed many affirmative defenses, including that the force majeure provision in the Marana lease excused its payment obligations for that property, as well as frustration of purpose, impracticability and impossibility."

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