MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Dеfendants move to dismiss five counts of plaintiffs’ eight-count complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These counts are as follows: counts III and VI state claims for relief based on strict products liability; counts II and V seek punitive damages, II under the Illinois Survival Act and V under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act; and count VIII asserts a claim on behalf of Peggy *1369 Poole for negligent infliction of emotiоnal distress. Defendants also move for sanctions under Fed.R.Civ.P. 11. Since plaintiffs have failed to state a claim in all five counts defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted and we impose sanctions for plaintiffs’ inclusion of count V.
FACTS 1
From 1975 until 1987 Stephen Poole, a hemophiliac, purchased and injected into his body an antihemophilic factor, gener-ieally referred to as factor VIII. The anti-hemophilic fаctor was manufactured, processed, marketed, distributed and sold by defendants. As a result of defendants’ failure to perform screening and heat-treating tests, and their failure to warn decedent of the product’s risks, Stephen Poole contracted Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (“AIDS”). Poole was diagnosed in March 1986 and died on July 10, 1987.
Originally, Stephen and Peggy Poole filed a complaint in the Circuit Court оf Cook County against Alpha Therapeutic Corporation (“Alpha”), Armour Pharmaceutical Company (“Armour”) and Miles Laboratories (“Miles”). Defendants removed the case to federal court on diversity grounds in October 1986. Following removal, Travenol Laboratories (“Travenol”), a nondiverse party, was joined as a defendant. This court held that joinder of Tra-venol did not defeat subject mattеr jurisdiction.
Poole v. Alpha Therapeutic Corp.,
No. 86 C 7623, slip op. (N.D.Ill. July 22, 1987) [available on WESTLAW,
DISCUSSION
I. Strict Liability (Counts III, VI)
Plaintiffs have asserted two tort claims based on strict liability. Defendants contend that the Illinois Blood Liability Act, 2 Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. lllVa, If 5101, et seq. (1985), bars these claims. We agree. Paragraph 5102 of the Act bars any strict liability claim involving the processing or distributing of blоod derivatives and products, and provides that
[t]he procuring, furnishing, donating, processing, distributing or using human whole blood, plasma, blood products, blood derivatives and products, corneas, bones, or organs or other human tissue for the purpose of injecting, transfusing or transplanting any of them in the human body is declared for purposes of liability in tort or contract to be the rendition of a service by еvery person, firm or corporation participating therein, whether or not any remuneration is paid therefor, and is declared not to be a sale of any such items and no warranties of any kind or description nor strict tort liability shall be applicable thereto, except as provided in Section 3.
(Emphasis added) (footnote omitted).
Section 3 of ¶ 5103 provides that
[e]very person, firm or corporation involved in the rendition of any of the services described ... warrants to the person, firm or corporation receiving the service and to the ultimate recipient that he has exercised due care and followed professional standards of care in providing the service according to the current state of the medical arts, and in the case of a service involving blood or blood derivatives that he has rendered such service in accordance with “Thе Blood Labeling Act,” effective October 1, 1972.
(Footnotes omitted.)
The Blood Liability statute was enacted in response to the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in
Cunningham v. MacNeal Me
*1370
morial Hospital,
The Illinois legislature, in rejecting strict liability claims, determined that society’s interest in ensuring an adequate blood supply outweighs a plaintiff’s interest in bringing such a claim. The fact that almost all states have enacted blood shield statutes insulating blood servicе providers from strict liability claims demonstrates the nationwide acceptance of such policies. Comment,
Hospital and Blood Bank Liability to Patients Who Contract AIDS Through Blood Transfusions,
23 San Diego L.Rev. 875, 882 n. 36 (1986). While the statutes often vary in language, courts interpreting them have uniformly held that they bar claims of strict liability.
See Coffee v. Cutter Biological,
In Clark v. Alpha Therapeutic Corp., No. 87-5230, slip op. (S.D.Ill., Oct. 27, 1987), the court was confronted with a case similar to this one. There the plaintiff, a hemophiliac, used an antihemophilic factor manufactured by the defendant and subsequently contracted AIDS. The Clark court held that under the Illinois Blood Liability Act, the blood derivatives are “specifically exempt from any claims of strict liability.” Clark, slip op. at 2-3. While the court barred plaintiff’s strict liability claims, plaintiff was allowed to proceed on his claim that defendant negligently failed to warn him of the possibility of contracting AIDS. Id. at 6.
As in Clark, here plaintiffs’ decedent acquired AIDS by using a blood derivative or product and it is immaterial, under the Act, that defendants are commеrcial sellers and distributors of blood. See Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 111%, ¶ 5102 (1985). Further, the Act is designed “to define the nature of all transactions relating to procuring, furnishing, donating, processing, distributing or using human blood and blood derivatives and products_” Id., ch. IIIV2. The broad scope of the Act indicates that it includes strict liability claims based on a producer’s failure to warn since the warnings attached to a blood product relate to thе distribution or furnishing of that product. Thus, while count I states a viable negligence claim against defendants for their failure to warn, the Act prohibits plaintiffs from sustaining a strict liability count on this basis.
Plaintiffs also argue that defendants are strictly liable since their failure to warn made factor VIII unreasonably dan
*1371
gerous. We disagree. Illinois law adheres to the strict liability scheme set forth in Section 402A of the Restatement (Sеcond) of Torts.
Kirk,
II. Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (Count VIII)
Peggy Poole alleges that in the course of ordinary marital relations, and as a result of her husband’s contracting AIDS, she has been “directly exposed to the AIDS virus, thereby inflicting upon her tremendous and excruciating emotional anguish from the fear of contracting the AIDS virus” (count VIII, ¶ 14). While “the boundaries of emotional distress law in Illinois are not clearly mapped,”
McAdams v. Eli Lilly & Co.,
Rickey v. Chicago Transit Authority,
[a] bystander who is in a zone of physical danger and who, because of defendant’s negligence, has reasonable fear for his own safety is given a right of action for physical injury or' illness resulting from emotionаl distress. This rule does not require that the bystander suffer a physical impact or injury at the time of the negligent act, but it does require that he must have been in such proximity to the accident in which the direct victim was physically injured that there was a high risk to him of physical impact. The bystander, as stated, must show physical injury or illness as a result of the emotional distress caused by the defendant’s negligence.
Rickey,
In cases that followed
Rickey,
courts divided as to whether the zone-of-danger standard applied to all claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress or only in “bystander” situations.
Compare Lewis v. Westinghouse Electric Corp.,
139 Ill.App. 3d 634, 637-38,
While plaintiff has alleged facts sufficient to аrguably place her in the zone of danger and to constitute a reasonable fear for her safety, plaintiff has failed to allege a physical injury or illness resulting from emotional distress. Defendant’s motion to dismiss count VIII is therefore granted with leave to amend.
III. Punitive Damages (Counts II, V)
We now consider whether the Illinois Survival Act, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. IIOV2, § 27-6 (1985), and the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 70, § 2 (1985), preclude plaintiffs from seeking punitive damаges for defendants’ willful and wanton misconduct.
5
Plaintiffs do not address the claim for punitive damages under the Wrongful Death Act in their memorandum, which indicates that no basis for the claim exists. Indeed, it is well settled that, under Illinois law, punitive damages are not recoverable under this Act.
In re Johns-Manville Asbestos Cases,
We confine further discussion to count II — plaintiffs’ Survival Act claim. Plaintiffs concede that punitive damages are generally not allowed under the Survival Act but they claim that the two exceptions to the general rule apply here. Defendants disagree, asserting that neither the equitable considerations exception nor the statutory exception applies and thus plaintiffs are precluded from collecting punitive damages. We agree with defendants and dismiss count II.
The Illinois Supreme Court in
Mattyasovszky v. West Towns Bus Co.,
Plaintiffs also assert that the statutory exception, analyzed in
National Bank of Bloomington v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.,
National Bank
and subsequent cases indicate that plaintiffs may not recоver punitive damages under the Survival Act unless their claims are brought pursuant to a comprehensive regulatory statute or scheme which expressly provides for such damages.
See In re Air Crash Disaster Near Chicago,
IV. Sanctions Under Rule 11
Defendants 6 have requеsted sanctions pursuant to Rule 11 for plaintiffs’ inclusion of strict liability and punitive damage claims under the Survival and Wrongful Death Acts.
Rule 11 provides in relevant part that every pleading shall be signed by the attorney and that this signature
constitutes a certificate ... that the signer has read the ... paper; that to the best of [his] knowledge, information and belief formed after reasonable inquiry it is well grounded in fact and is warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or rever *1374 sal of existing law, and that it is not interposed for any improper purpose, such as to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation....
The primary purpose of Rule 11 is to deter unnecessary and frivolous filings that burden the judicial system and litigants who have legitimate disputes.
See Szabo Food Service, Inc. v. Canteen Corp.,
Applying these standards, we conclude that sanctions are not warranted in this case for counts II, III and VI. Plaintiffs’ strict liability claims involve questions which were first addressed in Illinois while this motion was pending. In October 1987, a court in the Southern District of Illinois precluded a hemophiliac from suing in strict liability for contracting AIDS through a blood transfusion. Clark, slip op. at 2-3. This hardly constitutes well-settled law. Federal district courts across the country have in the past year just begun to explore this issue. Applying the objective standard, plaintiff has made a good faith argument that the Blood Liability Act does not preclude claims premised on a failure to warn. Although we find the argument unpersuasive, we do not think that sanctions are appropriate.
Plaintiffs’ claim for punitive damages pursuant to the Illinois Survival Act properly noted the general rule that punitive damages are not recoverаble under the Act, but contended that this case fits the exception to this rule. Specifically, plaintiffs sought to expand the statutory exception by arguing that several statutes, applied either independently or as a whole, constituted a regulatory scheme that would allow the imposition of punitive damages. While we hold that the statutory exception does not apply, we refuse tо penalize the plaintiffs for attempting to expand this exception.
Regarding count V, however, we find sanctions appropriate. In this count plaintiff sought to recover punitive damages for defendants’ willful and wanton misconduct pursuant to the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. We interpret plaintiffs’ failure to respond to defendants’ motion to dismiss as an indication that count V was not warranted in the first plaсe. As discussed earlier, Illinois case law clearly establishes that punitive damages are not recoverable for actions maintained under the Wrongful Death Act. Sanctions are appropriate where, as here, a reasonable inquiry into the law would have instructed plaintiffs’ attorney not to file this claim.
CONCLUSION
Defendants’ motion to dismiss counts II, III, V and VI is granted with prejudice and count VIII is dismissed with leave to amend. Sanction requests will be granted only with respect to count V of the complaint.
Notes
. For purposes of this motion we regard plaintiffs’ well-pleaded allegations as true.
See Hishon v. King & Spalding,
. The Illinois Blood Liability Act has been upheld as constitutional in a series of Illinois cases.
E.g., Glass v. Ingalls,
. Paragraph 5101 provides:
The availability of scientific knowledge, skills and materials for the purpose of injecting, transfusing or transplanting human whole blood, plasma, blood products, blood derivatives and products, corneas, bones, or organs or other human tissue is important to the health and welfare of the people of this State. The imposition of legal liability without fault upon the persons and organizations engaged in such scientific procedures inhibits the exercise of sound medical judgment and restricts the availability of important sciеntific knowledge, skills and materials. It is therefore the public policy of this State to promote the health and welfare of the people by limiting the legal liability arising out of such scientific procedures to instances of negligence or willful misconduct.
(Emphasis added.)
. In arguing that
Rickey
should not apply, plaintiff relies on
Wetherill v. University of Chicago,
. While counts II and V do not seek only punitive damages, since they mirror identically counts I and IV — except that they pray for punitive damages — we will dismiss them if we find plaintiffs are not entitled to recover punitive damages on these claims.
. While not all defendants have moved for sanctions, and some move by joining the briefs of the others, we award sanctions for plaintiffs’ inclusion of count V to all defendants.
See
Rule 11 (court may impose sanctions where appropriate "upon motion or upon its own initiative”);
Thornton v. Wahl,
