## Facts

- Mercy Hospital of Johnstown operated a hospital and an affiliated school of nursing.
- Mary Catherine Strank, then a minor, enrolled as a student nurse and paid incidental expenses.
- Strank completed two years of the program but was dismissed in her third year for violating a school rule by remaining away overnight without permission.
- Strank did not seek reinstatement; she requested that the school provide transfer credits for her completed coursework to obtain advanced standing at another nursing school.
- The hospital refused to grant the requested transfer credits.
- Strank first pursued mandamus, but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania previously held mandamus unavailable to enforce a duty resting solely on contract and ordered dismissal.
- Strank then filed an equity action alleging an oral (partly confirmed in writing) arrangement imposing a duty to grant proper credits and alleging no adequate remedy at law due to loss of time and speculative damages.
- The trial court overruled the hospital’s preliminary objections challenging equity jurisdiction and ordered an answer; the hospital took an interlocutory appeal, and Strank moved to quash.

## Issues

1. Whether an interlocutory appeal may be taken from an order overruling preliminary objections that challenge an equity court’s jurisdiction.
2. Whether equity has jurisdiction to hear a contract-based claim seeking transfer credits where alleged damages at law would be inadequate and difficult to measure.

## Decision

- The court denied the motion to quash, holding the interlocutory appeal proper under the Act of March 5, 1925, permitting prompt review of jurisdictional questions.
- The court affirmed the order overruling preliminary objections and held that equity had jurisdiction to proceed.
- The court did not decide whether Strank was substantively entitled to the credits; it decided only the proper forum and jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- Mandamus is unavailable to enforce rights or duties resting solely on contract rather than duties imposed by law.
- Under Pennsylvania’s statutory equity jurisdiction (including the Acts of 1836 and 1857), courts of equity may enforce obligations arising from contracts, express or implied.
- Equity may act where the plaintiff seeks specific performance or analogous non-monetary relief and a legal remedy is inadequate because damages are speculative or not readily measurable.
- The Act of 1925 permits interlocutory appeals to obtain early resolution of jurisdictional disputes to avoid litigation in a potentially improper tribunal.

## Conclusion

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that an interlocutory appeal was authorized to test jurisdiction and that equity could hear a student nurse’s contract-based claim for transfer credits because the requested relief was essentially specific performance and legal damages were not an adequate, measurable substitute.


Strank v. Mercy Hosp. of Johnstown, 383 Pa. 54 (1955)