PARIS — Trustees of the Barbara Thorpe estate deny withholding money from the abandoned and unwanted cats in Dixfield and have asked an Oxford County court to dismiss a case filed against them last month.
The trustees claim they have fulfilled their obligations under the Thorpe Trust, that the cat caretakers have no standing to sue them and that the allegations they’ve made are not allowed under the doctrine of unclean hands, which requires that the people filing the lawsuit have not acted dishonestly or unethically in connection with their claims.
In addition, the trustees claim the allegations made against them exceed the statute of limitations.
Friday was the deadline for defendants David Austin, Gertrude Crosby, Bentley Crosby and Charlotte Mesko to respond to a civil complaint filed on behalf of the beneficiary cats of Dixfield. Portland attorney Neal Pratt has denied all allegations on behalf of the trustees.
The Crosbys and Mesko are trustees of Thorpe’s estate, and Austin is their attorney who practices in Rumford.
In addition to denying the allegations of financial wrongdoing, Austin also denies claims of malpractice and conflict of interest by first representing Thorpe and then representing her trustees after she died.
Barbara Thorpe of Dixfield died in 2002. A cat owner who loved animals, she left the bulk of her $200,000 estate to provide “shelter, food and health care for abandoned and unwanted cats in Dixfield,” according to probate court records.
Last month, after years of fighting for the trust to be disbursed under Thorpe’s will, the town of Dixfield and stray cat caretakers Brenda Jarvis, Donna Weston, Noreen Clarke, Valerie Warriner and Caroline Smith filed a 20-count complaint in Oxford County Superior Court alleging the trustees billed excessive fees to the trust and have failed for more than 13 years to carry out Thorpe’s intention to finance the care and feeding of abandoned cats in Dixfield.
In their suit, the caretakers allege that defendant Gertrude Crosby of Winslow, who was Thorpe’s former housekeeper, raised her hourly rate from $8 while Thorpe was living at home to $100 an hour after Thorpe was moved to a nursing home, and continued to charge the higher fee to the trust after Thorpe died.
The caretakers also claim the trustees haven’t adequately invested the trust, which they believe should contain more than $150,000, to maximize income for the beneficiary cats.
Last month, Warriner and Jarvis told the Sun Journal their work to care for about 70 stray cats in Dixfield is chiefly financed from their own savings and from Social Security income, including paying for food, heat and utilities for two “cat houses,” and as much as 40 pounds of cat litter per day.
Jarvis estimated the caretakers have received less than $3,000 from the Thorpe Trust to care for the cats since 2002.
According to court records, the trust has paid more than $16,000 in attorney fees and $22,679 to trustees.
In 2004, Probate Court Judge Dana Hanley found the trustees’ fees excessive and ordered them to return $2,931 to the trust; that money was then used to pay attorney fees.
In response to the caretaker’s claims, Trustee Gertrude Crosby said in a sworn statement filed with the court Friday that the trust disbursed $12,462 between 2006 and 2013 to Jarvis for the care of cats.
She also stated in her affidavit that the Thorpe Trust was closed in 2013 to create the William M. & Barbara N. Thorpe Memorial Corp., which earned $4,729 in 2014. That year, the corporation sent a $500 check to Jarvis and a $500 check to the Franklin County Animal Shelter, according to Crosby’s affidavit.
In March 2015 the corporation donated another $500 to the animal shelter and forwarded $500 to Jarvis in June 2015.
In the time since the corporation was formed, Crosby’s affidavit notes that her husband, Bentley Crosby, Trustee Charlotte Mesko and herself were each paid $1,500 “consisting of $1,000 each in 2014 and $500 each in 2015” in directors’ fees to disburse money for the cats.
In addition to denying all claims of financial wrongdoing, Austin has denied claims of malpractice, negligence and conflict of interest, claiming the town of Dixfield and the caretakers have no standing to sue him because they were never his clients. He has asked to be dismissed from the case.
The trustees and Austin also claim the caretakers’ lawsuit is barred by the statute of limitations, which extends six years back from the date they were each served with the recent civil complaint. So, anything that happened prior to January 2010 can not be considered part of the case, they claim.
In addition to the allegations in their complaint, the town of Dixfield and the caretakers have asked the court to attach, or freeze, the assets of the trust.
But trustees argued in court documents filed Friday that caretakers have no evidence of financial mismanagement to warrant such an action. They also claim the affidavit filed by plaintiffs’ attorney Seth Carey of Rumford in support of freezing the trust is not valid because the notary who witnessed Carey’s signature is a relative, in violation of state law.
Plaintiffs will now have an opportunity to respond to the trustees’ motion to dismiss the case before the court makes a decision.
On Wednesday, Carey set up a gofundme page to raise money to fund the care of stray cats in Dixfield. As of Friday evening, $140 had been raised toward a $10,000 goal.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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