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Cats in Maine still await inheritance from $200,000 estate

DIXFIELD, Maine (AP) — A Maine town and a group of cat caretakers have sued estate trustees in a long-running dispute over a woman’s wishes that her life savings go to care for abandoned cats. Barbara Thorpe died in 2002 and left most of her $200,000 estate to give food, shelter and veterinary care to…

FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2015 file photo, Washoe County District Court Judge Frances Doherty speaks at a hearing on Aden Hailu in Reno, Nev. Aden Hailu, a 20-year-old woman at the center of an end-of-life court battle over her treatment at a Reno hospital, died Monday, Jan. 4, 2015, while still on life support, her family's lawyer said Tuesday.   (Cathleen Allison/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool,File)
FILE – In this Dec. 29, 2015 file photo, Washoe County District Court Judge Frances Doherty speaks at a hearing on Aden Hailu in Reno, Nev. Aden Hailu, a 20-year-old woman at the center of an end-of-life court battle over her treatment at a Reno hospital, died Monday, Jan. 4, 2015, while still on life support, her family’s lawyer said Tuesday. (Cathleen Allison/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool,File)

DIXFIELD, Maine (AP) — A Maine town and a group of cat caretakers have sued estate trustees in a long-running dispute over a woman’s wishes that her life savings go to care for abandoned cats.

Barbara Thorpe died in 2002 and left most of her $200,000 estate to give food, shelter and veterinary care to the stray cats of Dixfield. The Sun Journal (http://bit.ly/1nA3p8r ) reports that only a few thousand dollars have been given for the cats’ care. Lawyers have taken more than $16,000, and the estate’s trustees received over $22,000.

Dixfield and five women who care for the town’s strays sued the trustees last week. The suit says the trustees excessively billed fees to the trust and have failed to carry out Thorpe’s wishes.

The trustees’ attorney says they “vehemently deny any wrongdoing.”

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Information from: Sun-Journal, http://www.sunjournal.com

 

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