Opinion ID: 775593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Appellant Maxwell

Text: 20 Appellant Dian Maxwell is employed by Pacific Northwest Title Company of Washington (PNW), which provides escrow services among other things. After Rule 12.1 was established, PNW decided that to avoid the additional costs of the IOLTA program, estimated to be about $50.00 per transaction, it would not comply with Rule 12.1. Thus, PNW required its LPOs -including Maxwell-to surrender their licenses if they wished to continue employment. According to Maxwell, relinquishing her LPO license prevents her from fully practicing her profession because she can no longer select and fill in the legal documents that [she is ] fully qualified to select and fill in. Unlike Daugs, who asserts in his declaration that he-as the owner of SeaTac-held legal title to the principal placed in IOLTA accounts, Maxwell does not claim any ownership in the principal or the generated interest. At most, Maxwell appears to be arguing that she lost property in the form of her LPO license as a result of the IOLTA rules. 21 Although Maxwell may have been adversely affected by application of the IOLTA rules to LPOs, the loss of her LPO license was an indirect result of PNW's independent decision to eliminate LPOs from its payroll. Even if LPOs were exempt from the IOLTA rules, Maxwell can only speculate as to whether PNW would allow her to obtain a new LPO license while under its employment. Maxwell has failed to establish that her injury-the loss of her LPO license--would be redressed if LPOs were no longer required to place client funds in IOLTA accounts because such a result would require PNW to make an independent, intervening decision to employ licensed LPOs. See Pritikin v. Dept. of Energy, 254 F.3d 791, 797 (9th Cir. 2001). Thus, not only was she properly denied relief by the district court on the ground that she had no property right to the generated interest, but because she has not shown that eliminating Rule 12.1 will redress her injury, she lacks standing to challenge the IOLTA program on Fifth Amendment grounds. See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61 (1992).