OPINION
¶ 1 In the underlying wrongful death action filed by Lorna Hernandez, defendants Sonoran Desert Investigations, Inc., Michael Ghigo, Jose Howard, and Safeway, Inc. (collectively, SDI) moved for summary judgment based on A.R.S. § 12-712(B), which absolves *276 a defendant from liability to a plaintiff who is injured while involved in a criminal act. The respondent judge found that § 12-712(B) im-permissibly removes the determination of contributory negligence or assumption of the risk from the jury in violation of article XVIII, § 5 of the Arizona Constitution and denied SDI’s motion. SDI brought this special action to challenge the respondent judge’s ruling. Based on the broad language of article XVIII, § 5 and Arizona Supreme Court cases construing that section, we agree with the respondent judge that § 12-712(B) is unconstitutional and therefore conclude that the respondent judge did not abuse her discretion by denying SDI’s motion.
Jurisdiction
¶ 2 It is well settled that a denial of a motion for summary judgment is a nonappealable, interlocutory order that may be reviewed only by special action.
Sorensen v. Farmers Ins. Co. of Am.,
¶ 3 The question presented here is a “pure issue of law, requiring neither factual review nor interpretation,”
see id.
at 603,
¶ 4 Finally, although not determinative, both SDI and Hernandez urge us to accept jurisdiction, agreeing there is a “state-wide need” for an appellate decision of this issue.
See ChartOne, Inc. v. Bernini,
Standard of Review
¶ 5 We review a denial of a motion for summary judgment for an abuse of discretion and view the facts and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion.
Samaritan Health Sys. v. Superior Court,
Facts and Procedural Background
¶ 6 The facts, as stated by plaintiff Hernandez in her complaint and her response to SDI’s motion for summary judgment below, are as follows. Frank M. Hernandez, Jr., died of asphyxiation after he was apprehended on suspicion of shoplifting by Jose Howard, a private security guard employed by Sonoran Desert Investigations who had been assigned to a Tucson Safeway store. Howard allegedly confronted Hernandez after seeing him conceal bottles of moisturizer in his clothing and walk toward the front of the store. 1 Howard physically restrained Hernandez by wrestling him to the floor, face down, and placing his arm around Hernandez’s neck. Although Hernandez complained he could not breathe, Howard did not release him until, assisted by two Safeway employees, he had handcuffed Hernandez. By that time, however, Hernandez had passed out. Hernandez never regained consciousness, and the coroner opined his death was a homicide.
¶ 7 Lorna Hernandez, Hernandez’s widow, filed the underlying wrongful death action, alleging that SDI’s negligence had caused her husband’s death. In its motion for summary judgment, SDI claimed it was not hable to Hernandez, as a matter of law, based on § 12-712(B), which provides:
B. In a civil action a defendant is not hable for damages that the plaintiff incurs if the plaintiff is harmed as a result of the neghgence or gross neghgence of the defendant while the plaintiff is attempting to commit or committing a misdemeanor criminal act and the act directly relates to the defendant or the defendant’s property.
Hernandez responded, inter aha, that § 12-712 2 is unconstitutional under article XVIII, §§ 5 and 6 and article II, § 31 of the Arizona Constitution. 3
¶ 8 The respondent judge found § 12-712(B) unconstitutional, relying on
Schwab v. Matley,
Analysis
¶ 9 Article XVIII, § 5 of the Arizona Constitution provides: “The defense of contributory neghgence or of assumption of risk shah, in ah cases whatsoever, be a question of fact and shall, at ah times, be left to the jury.” In construing this provision, our supreme court has repeatedly held that a statute may not provide that “the antecedent conduct of a person injured is an absolute bar to the recovery of damages from one
*278
otherwise liable for the injury under either statutory or common law principles.”
City of Tucson v. Fahringer,
¶ 10 In
Schwab,
our supreme court invalidated A.R.S. § 4-312(A), which had relieved a liquor licensee from liability for injuries sustained by either a customer or anyone accompanying the customer “who knew of [his or her] impaired condition.”
¶ 11 The supreme court in Schwab rejected the defendant’s contention that the statute did not remove consideration of contributory negligence or assumption of risk from the jury but instead limited the duty of tavern-keepers, stating:
First, the statute clearly deals with the antecedent conduct of the person injured, providing that the one who causes the injury “shall not be liable.” If there is a difference between this and contributory negligence, we are unable to perceive it, nor can Matley articulate it. The reason is apparent: “Contributory negligence is conduct on the part of the plaintiff, contributing as a legal cause to the harm he has suffered....” PROSSER AND KEETON ON THE LAW OF TORTS § 65, at 451 (5th ed. 1984)....
Hatley’s argument fares no better if we analyze the common law defense of assumption of the risk, which also barred recovery____Assumption of the risk as a defense ... always “rest[ed] upon the idea that the defendant [was] relieved of any duty toward the plaintiff.” Id. at 451,793 P.2d 1088 . The very basis of the doctrine was that the plaintiff had expressly or impliedly consented to the defendant’s negligent conduct, “the legal result [being] that the defendant is simply relieved of the duty which would otherwise exist.” Id. § 68, at 481.
... If the legislature could abolish the recognized common law duties of care, the provisions of article 18, § 5 would have no meaning at all.
Id.
at 424-25,
¶ 12 The court reached a similar result in
Fahringer.
There, the City of Tucson argued the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by A.R.S. § 12-820.03(2), which had provided that a public entity was not liable to those injured while riding in a vehicle driven by someone under the influence of alcohol, whether the injured claimants were adult passengers or the intoxicated driver.
*279
¶ 13 If § 12-712(B) is applied here, Frank Hernandez’s antecedent criminal conduct, and nothing else, triggers a statutory defense of nonliability. The statute, therefore, bars recovery based on “the conduct of a particular category of persons injured.”
Schwab,
¶ 14 SDI argues, however, that even though Frank Hernandez’s conduct gives rise to the traditional common law defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk, the “same conduct also supports the statutory defense of A.R.S. § 12-712, [so] defendants are not hable for negligently responding to plaintiffs criminal act.” We find this argument insufficient to distinguish the supreme court’s holdings in Schwab and Fah-ringer.
¶ 15 First, if the conduct which gives rise to the defense can properly be described as contributory negligence or assumption of risk, according to the supreme court’s interpretation of article XVIII, § 5, the jury must decide whether the defendant is hable. As in
Schwab,
the statute at issue here is a “legislative codification” of these defenses.
Schwab,
¶ 16 Second,
Fahringer
implicitly preserved claims by intoxicated drivers, who, like Frank Hernandez, allegedly engaged in criminal acts that might have contributed to their injuries. As our supreme court stated: “this holding does not mean that the City ... is automatically liable to a drunk driver.... Under our constitution, it is the jury that must decide.”
Fahringer,
¶ 17 In a related argument, SDI suggests that criminal conduct cannot constitute contributory negligence because it is “beyond” negligent conduct and cannot constitute assumption of the risk because the criminal act occurs before any alleged negligence by a defendant and without specific knowledge of the risk a defendant poses. But it interprets the defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk too narrowly.
See, e.g., S. Pac. R.R. Co. v. Svensden,
¶ 18 SDI additionally argues that “a person harmed while committing criminal acts was never entitled to recover for damages for negligence at common law, when the constitution was adopted, or thereafter.” Although SDI raises this argument primarily in relation to its article XVIII, § 6 contention, the argument also relates to the article XVIII, § 5 issue as stated in
Fahringer:
whether a statute may prevent the imposition of liability on a defendant “otherwise liable for the injury under either statutory or common law principles.”
4
¶ 19 In
Gortarez v. Smitty’s Super Valu, Inc.,
¶ 20 The supreme court explained that, under the common law, there was no “shopkeeper’s privilege” to arrest or detain a suspected thief because the privilege of a private citizen to arrest a misdemeanant was limited to crimes involving a breach of peace, which did not include shoplifting.
Id.
at 102,
¶ 21 The court acknowledged the “developing, common law ‘shopkeeper’s privilege,”’ codified in A.R.S. § 13-1805, which provides in part: “A merchant, or his agent or employee,
with reasonable cause, may detain
on the premises
in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable time
any person suspected of shoplifting ...
for questioning or summoning a law enforcement officer.” Gorta-rez,
¶ 22 Other Arizona cases similarly reflect these principles. In
Transamerica Insurance Group v. Meere,
¶ 23 Respected commentators also have long recognized that, although the use of force in self-defense or defense of property may be privileged, the actor has a duty to act reasonably, and a claimant who is injured while breaking the law may have a cause of action if the response involves an unreasonable, excessive use of force. See Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 70 (“Character and Extent of Force Permissible”), 71 (“Force in Excess of Privilege”) and 889 (“Injury Received While Committing a Tort or Clime”; “[o]ne is not barred from recovery for an interference with his legally protected interests merely because at the time of the interference he was committing a tort or a crime”) (1965); Keeton, supra § 19, at 126 (“[T]he defendant is not privileged to inflict a beating which goes beyond the real or apparent necessities of his or her own defense. If he does, he is committing a tort to the extent of excessive force, and it is entirely possible that each party may have an action against the other”) citing, inter alia, Elliott v. Brown, 2 N.Y. (Wend.) 497 (1829).
¶ 24 The only Arizona case SDI cites is
Veytia v. Alvarez,
¶ 25 Thus, the Arizona common law originally did not recognize a shopkeeper’s privilege.
See Gortarez,
¶ 26 Ultimately, regardless of whether Frank Hernandez’s antecedent conduct was criminal in nature and whether it is characterized as contributory negligence or assumption of the risk, we cannot overcome our supreme court’s strong direction that the legislature may not bar recovery of damages based on the conduct of “a particular category of persons who otherwise could proceed with an action for damages” and that “ ‘in all cases’ issues of contributory negligence and assumption of the risk be left to the jury, even if the rule or statute directing otherwise attaches some other name to the defenses.”
Fahringer,
¶ 27 Based on prior supreme court cases, we agree with the respondent judge that § 12-712(B) violates article XVIII, § 5 of the Arizona Constitution and is therefore void. Accordingly, the respondent judge did not abuse her discretion in denying SDI’s motion for summary judgment based on the statute and striking as unconstitutional that statutory defense.
Notes
. SDI alleges Hernandez resisted the investigation and repeatedly struck Howard; real party in interest Loma Hernandez disputes this, a matter not material to our resolution of this issue.
. In her response to SDI’s motion for summary judgment, Hernandez did not distinguish between § 12-712(A), which pertains to defendants’ responses to felony conduct, and § 12— 712(B), which involves responses to misdemean- or conduct. § 12-712(A) provides: “In any civil action, a defendant is not liable for damages that the plaintiff incurs if the plaintiff is harmed as a result of the negligence or gross negligence of any defendant while the plaintiff is attempting to commit, committing or fleeing from a felony criminal act.” Contrary to SDI’s contention, in its reply here, that the trial court “held ... that the whole statute is unconstitutional,” the trial court's ruling only expressly refers to §12-712(B), and our review is limited to whether that ruling was an abuse of discretion. See Ariz. R.P. Spec. Actions 3, 17B A.R.S.
. Article XVIII, § 6 provides: "The right of action to recover damages for injuries shall never be abrogated, and the amount recovered shall not be subject to any statutory limitation.” Article II, § 31 provides: “No law shall be enacted in this State limiting the amount of damages to be recovered for causing the death or injury of any person.” Although SDI and Hernandez argued these provisions below and here, the respondent judge did not address the application of these provisions to A.R.S. § 12-712. These arguments are therefore not before us.
See
Ariz. R.P. Spec. Actions 3, 17B A.R.S.;
see also Cranmer v. State,
. Wrongful death is a statutory cause of action, A.R.S. § 12-611 through 12-613, and may be granted or limited by the legislature.
Schoenrock v. Cigna Health Plan of Ariz., Inc.,
. Other Arizona statutes setting forth self-defense privileges also require that a defendant’s conduct be reasonable. See, e.g., A.R.S. §§ 13-409 and 13-413 (person using force in arrest or detention not subject to civil liability only if "[a] reasonable person would believe that such force is immediately necessary”); §§ 13—405 and 13-410 (additional "reasonable belief” requirements for using deadly force).
