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Doe Parents No. 1 v. State11/27/2002
al manifestation of his or her psychological injury or actual physical presence within a zone of danger, "where a reasonable [person], normally constituted, would be unable to adequately cope with the mental stress engendered by the circumstances of the case." Rodrigues, 52 Haw. at 173, 472 P.2d at 520; John & Jane Roes, 91 Hawaii at 473, 985 P.2d at 664 (noting that, due to Rodrigues, "Hawaii 'became the first jurisdiction to allow recovery [for NIED] without a showing of physically manifested harm" to the plaintiff" (quoting Campbell v. Animal Quarantine Station, 63 Haw. 557, 560, 632 P.2d 1066, 1068 (1981))). Thus, an NIED claim is nothing more than a negligence claim in which the alleged actual injury is wholly psychic and is analyzed "utilizing ordinary negligence principles." Larson, 74 Haw. at 41, 837 P.2d at 1293 (citing Rodgrigues, 52 Haw. at 174, 472 P.2d at 520-21).
Although Rodrigues established that an NIED claimant did not need to establish that he or she was himself or herself physically injured by the defendant's conduct in order to recover for a purely psychological injury , we have consistently held, as a general matter, that the plaintiff must establish some predicate injury either to property or to another person in order himself or herself to recover for negligently inflicted emotional distress. See Guth, 96 Hawaii at 150, 28 P.3d at 984; John & Jane Roes, 91 Hawaii at 474, 985 P.2d at 665 (collecting cases in which this court has "subscribed to the principle that 'recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress by one not physically injured is generally permitted only when there is 'some physical injury to property or another person' resulting from the defendant's conduct" (quoting Ross v. Stouffer Hotel Co. (Hawaii) Ltd., 76 Hawaii 454, 465-66, 879 P.2d 1037, 1048-49 (1994) (brackets and some citations omitted) (emphasis in original))). The foregoing principle, however, has been "modified somewhat" by HRS ยง 663-8.9 (1993), which requires a predicate physical injury to the NIED claimant before he or she may recover damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress, where he or she claims that the psychological distress arises solely out of damage to property or to material objects. John & Jane Roes, 91 Hawaii at 474 & n.6, 985 P.2d at 665 & n.6. As such, the law as it currently stands in Hawaii is that an NIED claimant must establish, incident to his or her burden of proving actual injury (i.e., the fourth element of a generic negligence claim, see Dairy Road Partners, 92 Hawaii at 419, 992 P.2d at 114), that someone was physically injured by the defendant's conduct, be it the plaintiff himself or herself or someone else. See John v. Jane Roes, 91 Hawaii at 474 & n.6, 985 P.2d at 665 & n.6.
However, in cases that present unique circumstances, which provide the requisite assurance that the plaintiff's psychological distress is trustworthy and genuine, we have not hesitated to "carve out exception to our general rule that recovery [for psychic injury standing alone] is permitted only where there is a predicate physical injury to someone, be it a plaintiff or a third person." Id. (emphasis in original). In John & Jane Roes, for example, we held that "exposure to HIV-positive blood 'involve circumstances which guarantee the genuineness and seriousness of the claim'" (quoting Rodrigues, 52 Haw. at 171, 472 P.2d at 519), and, therefore, we carved out an exception that permitted "relief . . . where [the plaintiff] alleges, inter alia, actual exposure to HIV-positive blood, whether or not there is a predicate physical harm." 91 Hawaii at 476-77, 985 P.2d at 667-68 (some brackets added and some in original). Similarly, in Guth, we recogniz
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