BANGOR – Supporters of the ousted director of Friends of Fort Knox have taken their case to court, seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the organization’s actions during a membership meeting last week.

The suits, filed Monday in Bangor, ask Penobscot County Superior Court to overturn a recent membership vote changing the makeup of the organization’s board of directors and to prevent Friends of Fort Knox from using membership money to mount a legal defense of its policies.

Friends of Fort Knox is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of Fort Knox State Historic Site in Prospect. The Friends organization is based in Bucksport, just across the Penobscot River from the fort.

The fort dates from the 1840s. It was built to protect Penobscot Bay, which was controlled briefly by the British during the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

The cases were brought by Brewer resident Michael Celli and Bangor resident Mary Campbell, described in the documents as “members in good standing” of the Friends of Fort Knox. Celli and Campbell also are founding members of a rival group, True Friends of Fort Knox, which was formed shortly after the Friends board of directors removed executive director Leon Seymour from his post in August.

The suit was filed on behalf of Celli and Campbell by Bangor attorney Arthur J. Greif.

Kent Price, interim executive director of the Friends of Fort Knox, said Tuesday he was unable to comment on the matter so long as the suit remained before the courts.

“I am aware of it. We have not received it officially but I have no doubt of its authenticity,” Price said of the suit. “It’s litigation that we have expected.”

The suit contends that the board acted beyond its bylaws when it conducted an election last week that included votes submitted by either proxy or absentee ballot. The suit cites a specific article in the bylaws requiring that board members be elected “by members present” during meetings of the Friends.

Celli and Campbell contend that “never before in the history of the Friends have any membership votes ever utilized the proxy or absentee format.”

The complaint notes that any “fair reading of the statute and the bylaws makes it clear that one must be present to vote for or to remove a director.”

Besides the questionable use of absentee or proxy ballots, the suit contends that there were “multiple irregularities” in the collection, processing and handling of the ballots.

The suit contends that when the absentee or proxy ballots are removed from the total vote, those who actually were present for the Nov. 15 meeting elected a different board of directors than the recorded winners.

Under those totals, candidates supported by the True Friends of Fort Knox would come out on top if the proxy or absentee ballots were removed from the equation. As it stands, the slate of candidates supported by the Friends of Fort Knox carried the election.

In addition to the preliminary injunction against the election of the board, Celli and Campbell also are seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent current management of the Friends from spending group money on anything other than the day-to-day operation of the organization.

The suit contends that, if allowed to continue, the dispute between the Friends and True Friends would cause “irreparable harm” to the public and the state because the group could lose its ability to maintain its relationship with the state Department of Parks and Lands over management of Fort Knox as well as its ability to raise money for programs and operations.

“For either the new board or the old board to act and to contract they must have actual authority,” the suit says.