Karolina Barrera v. Sedona Pointe LLC.

IN THE
ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION TWO

KAROLINA BARRERA,
Petitioner,

v.

SEDONA POINTE LLC,
Respondent.

No. 2 CA-SA 2026-0011
Filed June 12, 2026

Special Action Proceeding
Pima County Cause No. C20257727
The Honorable Jeffrey T. Bergin, Judge

JURISDICTION ACCEPTED; RELIEF DENIED

COUNSEL

Southern Arizona Legal Aid Inc., Tucson
By Kristin Fitzharris
Counsel for Petitioner

Hull, Holliday & Holliday P.L.C., Phoenix
By Matthew R. Schlabach
Counsel for Respondent

Zona Law Group P.C., Scottsdale
By Scott A. Baluha
Counsel for Amicus Curiae Manufactured Housing Communities of Arizona

Statecraft PLLC, Phoenix
By Kory Langhofer and Thomas Basile
Counsel for Amicus Curiae Arizona Multihousing Association
 BARRERA v. SEDONA POINTE LLC
Opinion of the Court

Community Legal Services, Phoenix
By Pamela Bridge

DNA People’s Legal Services, Flagstaff
By Michael Elliott

and

William E. Morris Institute for Justice, Phoenix
By Brenda Muñoz Furnish, Michelle Johnson Simpson, and Andrew P. Schaffer
Counsel for Amici Curiae Community Legal Services, DNA People’s Legal
Services, and William E. Morris Institute for Justice

OPINION

Judge O’Neil authored the opinion of the Court, in which Presiding
Judge Gard and Judge Eckerstrom concurred.

O’ N E I L, Judge:

¶1 This special-action proceeding concerns the ongoing
application of 15 U.S.C. § 9058(c)(1), a provision of the federal Coronavirus
Economic Stabilization (CARES) Act,1 which placed a moratorium on filing
eviction actions for nonpayment of rent and directed that landlords must
give tenants a thirty-day notice before requiring them to vacate rental
property. Karolina Barrera challenges the superior court’s judgment
affirming her eviction. She argues the justice and superior courts
erroneously denied her motion to dismiss the action because the notice she
received did not allow her thirty days to cure her nonpayment of rent. For
the reasons that follow, we accept special-action jurisdiction and affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

¶2 In 2025, Barrera was leasing a home at Sedona Pointe
Apartments, a property covered by the CARES Act. On February 1, Sedona
Pointe delivered to Barrera a notice informing her that she had breached
her lease by failing to pay rent and that it intended to terminate her rental

115 U.S.C. §§ 9001-9141.

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Opinion of the Court

agreement. Sedona Pointe demanded that Barrera “cure this default within
five (5) calendar days of [her] receipt of this notice and/or return possession
of the premises not later than 30 days from the date of this notice to avoid
being evicted by the Constable/Sheriff.” The notice further provided that
“the filing of an eviction lawsuit against [her] by [her] landlord is
imminent” and that “[c]ertain properties are covered by special rules which
require a 30-day notice before the tenant can be physically removed from
the community.” It also stated that to “resolve this matter prior to the
initiation of legal action,” Barrera “must contact [her] landlord immediately
and deliver the full sum due or sign a partial payment agreement, if agreed
to in writing by [her] landlord.”

¶3 On March 7, thirty-four days after giving Barrera notice,
Sedona Pointe filed its eviction complaint in Pima County Justice Court.
Barrera moved to dismiss the action, arguing the notice was insufficient
because it did not expressly inform her that under the CARES Act she had
a thirty-day window in which to cure her nonpayment of rent.

¶4 After a bench trial, the justice court denied Barrera’s motion
to dismiss. The court noted that Sedona Pointe had waited thirty days
between giving Barrera notice of its intent to evict and filing the eviction
action, consistent with the procedure set by Scroggins v. 45th Street Senior
Apartments LLC, a prior Pima County Superior Court decision on which
Barrera relied in her motion to dismiss. That order recognized a three-way
split between states treating § 9058(c) as requiring landlords to give tenants
thirty days to cure or vacate, those allowing landlords to file eviction
actions before the expiration of thirty days so long as no eviction occurs
until thirty days have passed from the landlord’s notice, and those
reasoning that § 9058(c) no longer affects state eviction laws. Reasoning
that Barrera could have cured her nonpayment any time before entry of
special detainer judgment under A.R.S. § 33-1368(B), the court implicitly
concluded the notice here complied with § 9058(c). It then entered
judgment against Barrera.

¶5 Barrera appealed to the superior court, arguing that the justice
court incorrectly characterized the thirty-day period set forth in § 9058(c) as
requiring a landlord only to wait thirty days between giving notice and
filing an eviction action. Instead, Barrera contended, Scroggins requires
landlords to provide tenants with thirty days to cure rental nonpayment
and to expressly notify tenants of this right in an eviction notice. The
superior court affirmed, reasoning that “[t]he only change that the CARES
Act” imposes on § 33-1368(B) is to prohibit a landlord from filing a special

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Opinion of the Court

detainer complaint before thirty days after it gives notice of nonpayment.
The court further concluded that “there is no requirement that the initial
notice of nonpayment and intent to terminate must also inform the tenant
of their right to have the rental agreement reinstated at any time prior to
judgment.” This petition for special action followed.

Jurisdiction

¶6 Special-action review is discretionary “and may be accepted
only if the remedy by appeal is not equally plain, speedy, and adequate.”
Ariz. R. P. Spec. Act. 2(b)(2). Here, special-action review is appropriate
because no direct appeal lies from a superior court’s review of a justice
court’s ruling in an eviction action. See A.R.S. § 22-375(A), (B) (except under
circumstances not present here, “there shall be no appeal from the
judgment of the superior court given in an action appealed from a justice of
the peace or a municipal court”); Secure Ventures, LLC v. Gerlach, 249 Ariz.
97, ¶¶ 1, 4 (App. 2020) (accepting jurisdiction in forcible detainer action
“because appellate relief was exhausted when the matter, which originated
in the justice court, was appealed to the superior court”). Additionally, this
appeal addresses a matter of first impression in Arizona’s appellate courts:
whether the notice requirements in § 9058(c) remain in effect now that the
federal eviction moratorium established by § 9058(b) has expired. See Ariz.
R. P. Spec. Act. 12(b)(3). The parties agree that the notice provision of
§ 9058(c) has been applied inconsistently in counties across the state,
making this question a matter “of statewide importance.” Ariz. R. P. Spec.
Act. 12(b)(4). Further, Barrera presents primarily questions of law—
whether and to what extent the CARES Act continues to direct a landlord’s
notice of eviction. See Ariz. Pres. Found. v. Pima Cmty. Coll. Dist. Bd., 259
Ariz. 539, ¶ 10 (App. 2025). For these reasons, we accept special-action
jurisdiction.2

2 At oral argument, counsel for Sedona Pointe suggested we lack

jurisdiction to consider whether § 9058(c) remains in effect because Barrera
did not squarely raise it in the justice or superior courts. But the justice
court noted the precise issue presented here—whether and how § 9058(c)
bears on state eviction notice provisions. In any event, issue preservation
is a matter of waiver, not of jurisdiction. Waiver is a discretionary doctrine.
See Sw. Non-Profit Hous. Corp. v. Nowak, 234 Ariz. 387, n.7 (App. 2014).
Given the compelling reasons to accept special-action jurisdiction over this
issue of statewide importance, we decline to apply the waiver doctrine here.
See id.

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Discussion

¶7 The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act allows a
landlord to file an action to terminate a rental agreement if a tenant “fails to
pay rent within five days after written notice by the landlord of
nonpayment and the landlord’s intention to terminate the rental
agreement.” § 33-1368(B). But in March 2020, Congress temporarily halted
new eviction filings based on nonpayment of rent as part of the CARES Act
“[t]o provide emergency assistance and health care response for
individuals, families, and businesses affected by the 2020 coronavirus
pandemic.” S. 3548, 116th Cong. (2020) (as introduced by Senate; enacted
as H.R. 748, Pub. L. 116-136, Mar. 27, 2020, 134 Stat. 281). The relevant
portions of § 9058, entitled “Temporary moratorium on eviction filings,”
provide:

(b) Moratorium

During the 120-day period beginning on March
27, 2020, the lessor of a covered dwelling may
not—

(1) make, or cause to be made, any filing
with the court of jurisdiction to initiate a
legal action to recover possession of the
covered dwelling from the tenant for
nonpayment of rent or other fees or
charges; . . . .

(c) Notice

The lessor of a covered dwelling unit—

(1) may not require the tenant to vacate
the covered dwelling unit before the date
that is 30 days after the date on which the
lessor provides the tenant with a notice
to vacate; and

(2) may not issue a notice to vacate under
paragraph (1) until after the expiration of
the period described in subsection (b).

When the temporary moratorium expired, contrary to Arizona’s five-day
notice requirement, the CARES Act required thirty days between an

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eviction notice and the date when a landlord could “require the tenant to
vacate.” See §§ 9058(c), 33-1368(B).

¶8 The moratorium on eviction filings has long since expired.
§ 9058(b). This special action requires us to consider whether the thirty-day
waiting period provided by § 9058(c)(1) continues to apply despite the
moratorium’s expiration. See Ala. Ass’n of Realtors v. Dep’t of Health & Hum.
Servs., 594 U.S. 758, 760 (2021). “We interpret statutes ‘in view of the entire
text, considering the context and related statutes on the same subject.’”
Planned Parenthood Ariz. Inc. v. Mayes, 257 Ariz. 137, ¶ 15 (2024) (quoting
Nicaise v. Sundaram, 245 Ariz. 566, ¶ 11 (2019)). When interpreting an
ambiguous statute, “we may use alternative methods of statutory
construction, including examining the rule’s historical background, its
spirit and purpose, and the effects and consequences of competing
interpretations.” Id. ¶ 17. “We also may consider a statement of legislative
intent, including a construction provision, in discerning the meaning of a
statute.” Id. ¶ 16. “We review questions of statutory interpretation de
novo.” State v. Marner, ___ Ariz. ___, ¶ 5, 583 P.3d 53, 55 (2026).

¶9 There are at least two plausible ways of reading § 9058(c)’s
notice provision. Barrera reads the thirty-day waiting period as a
continuing requirement that applies independently of the moratorium.
Sedona Pointe contends that the requirement is contextually limited to
evictions that were affected by the moratorium and has thus expired.

¶10 Barrera’s argument is straightforward. Although § 9058(b)
provides a clear expiry for the eviction moratorium, § 9058(c)(1) contains
no express expiration date for the thirty-day notice requirement. She
asserts, therefore, the notice requirement must continue indefinitely, absent
Congressional action.3 See Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, 590 U.S. ___, 600, 140 S.
Ct. 1721, 1725 (2020) (court “may not narrow a provision’s reach by
inserting words Congress chose to omit”); see also City of Surprise v. Ariz.
Corp. Comm’n, 246 Ariz. 206, ¶ 13 (2019) (identifying interpretive canon,
“the expression of one item implies the exclusion of others”). The simplicity
of this interpretation has persuasive force, especially when reading
§ 9058(c)(1) in isolation, yet it has flaws when considered within the
statute’s larger context. The statutory language and structure give

3Notably, in February 2026, a bill was reported in the U.S. House of

Representatives that would strike subsection (c) altogether. See H.R. Rep.
No. 119-521 (2026).

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important reasons to infer that the notice requirement is tethered to the
eviction moratorium in § 9058(b).

¶11 First, § 9058(c)(1) is textually linked to subsection (c)(2), which
provides that a landlord “may not issue a notice to vacate under [(c)](1)”
during the temporary moratorium “described in subsection (b).” The
moratorium under § 9058(b) prohibits landlords from filing an eviction
action for nonpayment for a defined period, while § 9058(c)(2) prohibits
issuing a notice to vacate during that same defined period. And § 9058(c)(1)
specifies that the notice, once issued, must allow thirty days to vacate. This
suggests that § 9058(c)(1) refers specifically to evictions affected by the
moratorium under § 9058(b). In fact, reading it otherwise would render
§ 9058(c)(2)—written as part of a complete sentence along with
§ 9058(c)(1)—a dead letter, textually attaching an ongoing notice
requirement to an expired temporary moratorium. This reading would
“fracture the statute’s internal logic.” Carson v. Gentry, 574 P.3d 205, ¶ 71
(2025) (“[A] statute should be read ‘to consider the entire text, in view of its
structure and of the physical and logical relation of its many parts.’”
(quoting Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation
of Legal Texts 167 (2012))).

¶12 There is another reason to understand the notice requirement
as attached to the eviction moratorium. Just as § 9058(c)(1) does not specify
an expiration date, it also does not specify that the thirty-day notice
requirement is limited to evictions for nonpayment of rent. The
moratorium, of course, applied only to evictions for nonpayment and did
not affect eviction actions on other grounds. § 9058(b). If § 9058(c)(1) was
untethered from the moratorium, then the thirty-day notice requirement
would apply to all evictions, and we would seemingly be compelled to read
§ 9058(c)(2) as independently prohibiting eviction notices even on grounds
to which the moratorium did not apply. In other words, although
§ 9058(b)’s moratorium did not prevent landlords from filing eviction
actions for reasons other than nonpayment, Barrera’s reading of § 9058(c)(2)
would have prevented them from issuing the requisite notice before doing
so. This seems an unlikely and, indeed, unfeasible result, and it further
indicates that the notice requirement is limited to eviction actions affected
by the moratorium.

¶13 Lastly, the statute’s title also informs its meaning. See Grand
Canyon Tr. v. Ariz. Corp. Comm’n, 210 Ariz. 30, ¶ 44 (App. 2005) (“Although
a title is not part of a law itself, we may look to it for guidance in interpreting
a statute.”). The title identifies the statute as establishing a “moratorium on

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eviction filings,” specifying that the moratorium was “[t]emporary.”
§ 9058. The title thus places the moratorium as the central focus and
emphasizes its temporary effect. Although not dispositive, this supports a
reading of the statutory language that contextually relates the notice
requirement to eviction actions subject to the moratorium. See Grand
Canyon Tr., 210 Ariz. 30, ¶ 44.

¶14 Barrera’s reading of § 9058(c)(1) is textually plausible, but the
subsection’s language is ambiguous. See Marner, ___ Ariz. ___, ¶ 5, 583 P.3d
at 55. This ambiguity is reflected in significant disagreement among state
courts nationwide both as to whether § 9058(c) expired along with § 9058(b)
and the extent of its reach. Most state courts have concluded that § 9058(c)’s
thirty-day notice provision remains in effect. See, e.g., Sherwood Auburn LLC
v. Pinzon, 521 P.3d 212, ¶ 8 (Wash. Ct. App. 2022) (under § 9058(c),
landlords must “provide a clear 30-day notice to pay rent or vacate the
premises”); Arvada Vill. Gardens LP v. Garate, 529 P.3d 105, ¶ 13 (Colo. 2023)
(notice provision of § 9058(c) still in effect because it “includes no expiration
date”); D.H. v. Common Wealth Apartments, 231 N.E.3d 284, 288 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2024); Olentangy Commons Owner LLC v. Fawley, 228 N.E.3d 621, ¶ 43
(Ohio Ct. App. 2023). But even among those courts, disagreement remains
as to whether the thirty-day period provides defaulting tenants an
opportunity to cure rental nonpayment or merely an extended time to
vacate the rental property. Compare Sherwood, 521 P.3d 212, ¶¶ 8, 16-17, 28
(thirty days to cure), with Woodrock River Walk LLC v. Rice, 906 S.E.2d 682,
685-86 (Va. Ct. App. 2024) (during thirty days after notice, landlord may file
eviction action). And a minority of states have concluded that § 9058(c)’s
notice provision has expired. MIMG CLXXII Retreat on 6th, LLC v. Miller, 16
N.W.3d 489, 501 (Iowa 2025); see also Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-802(5)(c)
(West 2020) (§ 9058(c)’s notice requirement “applies only when delinquent
rent or other amounts have accrued during the 120-day moratorium”
period).

¶15 We conclude the better reading is that the notice requirement
has expired. Section 9058(c) is necessarily tethered to its larger statutory
scheme and governs only notices to vacate for nonpayment of rent that
became delinquent during the eviction moratorium set forth in § 9058(b).

¶16 This interpretation, notably, avoids reading § 9058(c)(1) in a
manner that would represent a significant and ongoing federal intrusion
into an area that has long been reserved for state law. See Bond v. United
States, 572 U.S. 844, 848 (2014) (courts generally “decline[] to read federal
law as intruding” in areas principally governed by state statute unless

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Congress clearly states intent to override state law); see also Gregory v.
Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 460-61 (1991). Even though the intrusion would be
limited to properties subject to federally subsidized housing regulations
covered by the CARES Act, eviction laws have long been a matter left to the
states, regardless of federal subsidy. See Ala. Ass’n of Realtors, 594 U.S. at
764 (reasoning that “the landlord-tenant relationship” is “an area that is the
particular domain of state law”). There is a good reason to favor an
interpretation that declines to read so novel an intrusion upon state
sovereignty into an isolated and ambiguous clause buried in the middle of
a temporary measure for emergency relief. See Bates v. Dow Agrosciences
LLC, 544 U.S. 431, 449 (2005) (given two plausible interpretations, courts
“have a duty to accept the reading that disfavors pre-emption”).

¶17 Our interpretation is also consistent with the legislative
purpose of § 9058, which aimed “[t]o protect renters experiencing COVID-
19 pandemic-related financial hardships” and which was enacted alongside
numerous provisions aimed at mitigating economic harms during the
pandemic. Katie Jones et al., Cong. Rsch. Serv., CRS R45710, Housing Issues
in the 116th Congress 12 (2021). To interpret subsection (c)(1) as standing
alone, applying a thirty-day notice requirement indefinitely to eviction
actions of all kinds, as Barrera urges, would stretch the application of
§ 9058(c) in particular and the CARES Act in general well beyond that
purpose. See Unemployed Workers United v. Ducey, 254 Ariz. 95, ¶ 13 (App.
2022) (“The pandemic represented a hard stop on our state’s economy.”).
The forced closures that prevented American citizens from working and
collecting paychecks during the pandemic were not indefinite, and neither
were the measures Congress implemented to alleviate the harms those
closures caused. See id. ¶¶ 11-12 (contrasting pandemic unemployment
benefits provided by CARES Act, enacted “to triage the economic
catastrophe sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic,” to permanent changes in
benefits); see also Holcomb v. T.L., 175 N.E.3d 1177, 1179 (Ind. Ct. App. 2021)
(“The programs under the CARES Act were envisioned as temporary
measures from their inception.”).

¶18 Read in context, § 9058(c) provided a pathway for how
landlords could proceed upon the expiration of the moratorium on filing
eviction actions set forth in subsection (b). After the moratorium, under
subsection (c)(2), landlords were again permitted to issue notices to those
tenants whose rental payments lapsed during the moratorium to vacate.
Subsection (c)(1) provided an additional protection to tenants in the form
of a thirty-day holdover, so that even those tenants whose rent had lapsed
during the moratorium had extra time before they were required to vacate

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their homes. The subsection explained to both landlords and tenants how
the process of moratorium-related evictions would proceed after the
moratorium ended.

¶19 Because Barrera’s nonpayment occurred well after the
temporary moratorium had ended, the thirty-day notice period in
§ 9058(c)(1) does not apply to Sedona Pointe’s eviction notice. And in any
event, Barrera would not be entitled to relief under § 9058(c) even if it did.
Sedona Pointe’s notice informed Barrera that if she failed to cure her
nonpayment within five days, she had thirty days from the date of the
notice to vacate the property, consistent with the thirty-day requirement
from § 9058(c) rather than the five-day notice provided in Arizona law. See
§ 33-1368(B). Sedona Pointe then filed the eviction action thirty-four days
after issuing the notice. Well over thirty days had passed, therefore, before
Barrera was required to vacate.

¶20 Barrera relies on Washington case law to urge that § 9058(c)(1)
entitled her to a thirty-day period not only to vacate, but to cure her
nonpayment of rent. See Sherwood, 521 P.3d 212, ¶¶ 8, 16-17, 28. Nothing
about the plain language of § 9058(c)(1) establishes a right to cure. It states
only that a landlord “may not require the tenant to vacate” within thirty
days of the notice. Id. The Sherwood court reasoned that “the notice
provision would be rendered meaningless” under Washington law if a
tenant was unable to cure during the thirty-day period defined in
subsection (c)(1). 521 P.3d 212, ¶ 17. There is no such inconsistency under
Arizona’s scheme. See, e.g., RPEA 14(b)(1) (providing that Arizona landlord
may request a writ of restitution only after obtaining “judgment for
possession in an eviction action”). Subsection (c)(1) extends a tenant’s right
of possession to thirty days after the notice. That extension would be
meaningful with or without a right to cure.

¶21 For the same reason, we also reject Barrera’s argument that
her due process rights were violated because Sedona Pointe’s notice failed
to inform her of a right to cure within the thirty-day notice period.
Section 9058(c) does not provide a separate right for a tenant to cure rental
nonpayment outside the five-day period set forth in § 33-1368(B). The
notice Barrera received reasonably apprised her that she had breached the
rental agreement, that her landlord intended to initiate eviction
proceedings, and that she had five days in which to cure her nonpayment.
Due process requires nothing more. See Blair v. Burgener, 226 Ariz. 213, ¶ 19
(App. 2010) (“Due process requires notice ‘reasonably calculated, under all
the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the

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action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections.’”
(quoting Mullane v. Cent. Hanover Bank & Tr. Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314 (1950)));
see also A.R.S. § 33-1305(C) (prohibiting “mandatory or technical form for
providing notice” in special detainer actions, so long as notice contains
“statutory requirements for content and formatting”).

Disposition

¶22 We grant special-action jurisdiction but deny relief.

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