PARIS – The attorney for C.N. Brown Co. shareholders Bob and Gary Bahre said Thursday that their lawsuit against the heating oil company is not intended to put its hundreds of employees out of work.

“I think that would be very unlikely. Never say never, but it’s not what they’re seeking,” attorney Christopher Coggeshall said.

Bob Bahre and his son, Gary, both of Alton, N.H., filed a complaint last week in Oxford County Superior Court alleging “illegal, oppressive or fraudulent behavior” by the five directors of the Paris company: CEO Harold Jones of Norway; his daughter Jinger Duryea of Norway, president; his son Grant Jones of Norway, senior vice president; his son Kurt Jones of Falmouth, treasurer; and Charles “Chick” Wilkins, vice president and general manager.

An attorney for the company has denied the charges.

The former Paris men acquired about a 40 percent interest in the company in 2006 and say they have been denied a seat on the board of directors.

The Joneses have more than a 52 percent interest in the company, which has between 800 and 900 employees and operates more than 90 Big Apple food stores and 34 Red Shield heating oil offices in northern New England. It services more than 150 gasoline stations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Among the allegations made in the complaint are that the company gave a $2.6 million retirement package to a company director, paid family members excessively, and diverted corporate money to the Jones family’s Ripley and Fletcher auto dealership in Paris, all while posting pre-tax losses of about $6.4 million and paying no dividends to shareholders.

The Bahres ask that the court dissolve the company an appoint a receiver to liquidate its assets, if its proven that the directors or those in control of the corporation have acted, are acting, or will act in a manner that is illegal, oppressive or fraudulent and/or the corporation assets are being misapplied or wasted, according to the complaint.

“The statute is called the dissolution statute. It gives the judge broad discretion,” Coggeshall said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to dissolve the corporation or that it would be dissolved. What is likely is the Bahres will be bought out or an independent management may be put in place, or the company will be sold to a third party.”

Under state law, the court could grant relief other than dissolution by selling shares of any shareholder, selling all the corporation’s property and franchise to a single purchaser, canceling or altering provisions contained in the company’s articles of incorporation, or appointing a receiver who has no company ties as an additional director for no longer than two years.

“It’s much more likely either the Bahres would be bought out, perhaps new management would be brought in or the company could be sold out. These are all possibilities,” Coggeshall reiterated.

“Once in the hands of the judge, it’s up to him,” he said.