PARIS — Two couples have filed suit against CN Brown, charging that the company was complicit in a November 2004 explosion and fire that destroyed a residence and burned an occupant.

Lynn and Robert Paradis of Norway as well as Dawn and Dennis Cyr of Oxford accuse CN Brown and Ripley and Fletcher Co. of negligence. The suit also charges that under a state statute of “strict liability,” CN Brown is liable for all damages caused by the blast.

According to the suit, filed by attorney John S. Campbell, Lynn and Robert Paradis were renting the house at 598 Greenwood Road, which was owned by the Cyrs. The suit states that Dawn Cyr is Lynn Paradis’ sister.

Campbell says that Robert was seriously burned by an explosion after trying to light an oven pilot light, which had gone out after the house’s propane supply ran out. The house was destroyed in the ensuing fire.

Campbell argues that CN Brown cut off propane deliveries to the residence without adequate notice and put up “repeated obstacles” to the couple’s attempts to resume them. He states that the company insisted that Lynn and Robert pay a debt related to the Country Way Restaurant, which they operated from 1996 to 2003, according to Sun Journal archives. Campbell says the couple had maintained payments on their personal propane deliveries.

Campbell says that Dawn Cyr made a prepayment for a propane delivery at the CN Brown offices, and a delivery was made on the same day as the explosion. He says the delivery was made by an unlicensed person who did not test the propane lines and ensure that there were adequate safeguards against fire or explosion.

The suit charges that CN Brown is organized in Lewiston but does business in the Norway area under the Ripley and Fletcher name. In a reply to the lawsuit, CN Brown attorney Elizabeth Strouder admitted that CN Brown does business in the area, but denied that it uses a different name. Ripley and Fletcher is the name of a Paris car dealership owned by the family that owns CN Brown.

Strouder denies the charges brought against the company and asks that the lawsuit be dismissed. She also lists five affirmative defenses, including that the statute of “strict liability” is inapplicable in the case and that there was “voluntary assumption of a known risk” by the couples.

According to Mainebiz magazine, CN Brown operates about 90 Big Apple convenience stores and 34 Red Shield Heating Oil offices, and also services more than 100 gas stations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The company employs 800 to 900 people, according to the magazine.

The suit also references a lawsuit brought against the company by minority shareholders Bob and Gary Bahre last spring. That suit charges the company with failing to pay dividends to shareholders, diverting revenues to the Ripley and Fletcher dealership, and giving excessive pay to family members and a $2.6 million retirement package to the company director.

The company has denied the charges in that lawsuit. Strouder asks that mention of the Bahre lawsuit and company holdings be stricken from the Paradis and Cyr lawsuit as irrelevant.

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