No “Duty to Protect” Student Who Collapsed in Exam

Hofstra University claims it had no responsibility to help a person who went into cardiac arrest while taking the bar exam on its campus in July 2025, court filings show. 

“While Hofstra sympathizes with the Plaintiff for the medical episode she suffered on July 30, 2025 … Hofstra did not owe a legal duty to provide any first aid assistance to the plaintiff,” a lawyer for the university wrote last week in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit the student filed against Hofstra.

Mary Jane Jung was sitting for the bar exam when she “gasped for air, cried out, lost consciousness, collapsed, and turned blue in full view of proctors, staff, and hundreds of examinees,” according to the lawsuit she filed in July with a state court in Nassau County, N.Y. Although “every lost minute mattered,” staff in the testing room didn’t immediately summon emergency services, the lawsuit said. “Instead, the examination continued. Candidates were instructed to keep working, those who attempted to stand or assist were discouraged or admonished, and Plaintiff remained unconscious without the urgent intervention her condition demanded.”

According to the lawsuit, the consequences of the delay were “devastating.” While Jung survived, she has “endured cardiac, neurological, cognitive, psychological, professional, and economic injuries that were caused and aggravated by Hofstra’s deficient emergency planning and response.”

Jung, who was not a student at Hofstra, is also seeking damages from the state and the New York State Board of Law Examiners. In September, the state asked the courts to dismiss the claim, arguing that Jung’s allegations are “entirely, demonstrably false” and “disproven” by security cameras and witness statements.  

But in a separate motion to dismiss, the university asserted that regardless of whether Jung’s allegations are true, it didn’t have an obligation to render emergency medical care. 

“As a landowner, Hofstra had a duty to maintain and operate its property (the Hofstra University campus) in a reasonably safe condition for any person reasonably expected to be on the premises,” the motion reads. “The operation and maintenance of Hofstra University does not, however, create a duty to protect an individual from experiencing a medical emergency, and there is no body of law in the State of New York that establishes such a duty.”

Jung’s case also prompted state lawmakers to introduce the Clock Should Stop Act earlier this year. The proposal, which remains stalled, would require the state Board of Law Examiners “to establish protocols for addressing emergencies that occur during the administration of the bar examination.”