PARIS — An Oxford County Superior Court justice has granted defendants’ motion for more time to answer a civil complaint seeking to disburse more than $151,000 in cash to the care of the abandoned and unwanted cats of Dixfield. 

The defendants in the case are Rumford attorney David Austin, and Gertrude Crosby, Bentley Crosby and Charlotte Mesko, the three trustees for the estate of Barbara Thorpe.

Thorpe, who died in 2002, left the bulk of her $200,000 estate in her last will and testament to the abandoned cats of Dixfield. According to plaintiffs, which include five women who have been caring for the cats for more than a decade, they’ve received a little more than a few thousand dollars for the cats’ care.

In late January, after arguing for disbursement of the estate for years in the Oxford County Probate Court, plaintiffs filed a civil suit in Maine Superior Court.

Specifically, the suit alleges that trustees have failed in their duty to properly manage Thorpe’s trust by disregarding her will, in which she bequeathed any cash remaining after bills and taxes were paid, and after small bequests of cash and furniture were disbursed, “for the purpose of providing shelter, food and health care for abandoned and unwanted cats in the town of Dixfield.”

The plaintiffs in this case are the town of Dixfield and cat caretakers Brenda Jarvis, Donna Weston, Noreen Clark, Valerie Warriner and Caroline Smith.

On Monday, defendants’ attorney Neal F. Pratt of Portland filed a motion to extend the deadline by which his clients have to respond to the complaint answering plaintiffs’ allegations. The original deadline was Feb. 12.

Seth Carey of Rumford, the plaintiffs’ attorney, objected to the defendants’ motion for more time, but the defendants’ motion was later granted by the court.

The deadline for the defendants to answer the complaint has been extended to Feb. 19.

capplegarth@sunmediagroup.net