A North Dakota crude oil company’s lawsuit against a Philadelphia-area attorney who allegedly failed to properly pay $2.5 million out of his IOLTA account to facilitate a financing deal must head to court, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled, drawing a fine line between a lawyer’s work as an escrow agent and their legal obligations as an attorney.

The attorney, Christopher G. Hayes, whose law firm is based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, had sought to move the case to arbitration, arguing that the agreement allowing him to handle the $2.5 million escrow deposit contained an arbitration provision.