## Facts

- Airline baggage handlers encountered blood leaking from a specimen container shipped in luggage.
- The handlers later learned the blood was HIV-positive and alleged they had open hand wounds at the time of contact.
- Plaintiffs sued multiple entities involved in arranging and transporting the specimen, asserting negligence and emotional-distress claims.
- In federal court, parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, prompting the court to certify unsettled questions of Hawaiʻi law.
- The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court accepted certification and treated the matter as involving negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED).

## Issues

1. Whether Hawaiʻi law recognizes an NIED claim based on fear of developing AIDS when a plaintiff proves exposure to HIV-positive blood.
2. If such a claim exists, whether damages may be based solely on emotional distress or instead require an independent physical injury.

## Decision

- Hawaiʻi law recognizes an NIED claim for fear of developing AIDS following exposure to HIV-positive blood that results in actual physical peril to the claimant.
- Damages may be based solely on serious emotional distress even without proof of a predicate physical injury.
- The court answered only the certified legal questions and left application of the standards to the federal court.

## Legal Principles

- An “AIDS-phobia” claim is analyzed within NIED rather than as a separate tort.
- For fear-of-AIDS NIED claims, liability requires exposure creating actual physical peril of HIV infection; speculative or minimal-risk fear is insufficient.
- Serious emotional distress may be compensable without physical impact or separate physical injury when the claimant was placed in actual physical peril.
- Certified-question decisions declare governing state-law standards without resolving disputed facts or ultimate liability.

## Conclusion

Hawaiʻi recognized a limited NIED cause of action for fear of developing AIDS when exposure to HIV-positive blood places a plaintiff in actual physical peril, and it permits recovery based on serious emotional distress without requiring a separate physical injury.


Roes v. FHP, Inc., 91 Haw. 470, 985 P.2d 661 (Haw. 1999)