Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Hutchins, recently assigned to rule on a multimillion-dollar tug of war between a Santa Barbara contractor and Le Parc homeowners, allowed the homeowner association to pay April gas, trash and electric bills.

Utilities for Le Parc's 264 homeowners were scheduled to be cut off this week.

"Quite truly, in my point of view, if the gas is turned off, if the electricity is turned off, the implications are serious," Hutchins said in the east Ventura County court. "Gas, electricity, utilities need to be continued under any kind of stewardship.

"Those things should be allowed to be paid."

A court-appointed receiver, in order to collect an escalating $7.2 million judgment in favor of ZM Corp., had siphoned off money for the debt rather than pay Le Parc's $34,000 utility bills.

The judge Wednesday encouraged Le Parc property managers to secure a last-minute extension from the city for a $16,000 water and sewer bill.

The ruling allows homeowners a temporary reprieve until Hutchins, who replaced Judge John Hunter to rule on the complex civil case, decides next month whether homeowners can be assessed what some say could be as much as $40,000 each to pay the judgment.

Some residents fear they could lose their homes.

Last summer, an arbitrator awarded Darren Zuzow, president of ZM Corp., the $7.2 million judgment for breach of contract and defamation by the Le Parc Homeowners Association related to repairs done after the 1994 earthquake.

Residents, tired of paying association dues to the receiver while watching their premises decay, had fired the old association last month and formed the new one to collect money for general upkeep.

Hunter deemed it a fraudulent attempt to get out of the debt. Glenn Campbell, attorney for ZM, called it a "shell game."

The utility bills, he said, weren't paid because the receiver had no way to collect the money.

"We're not the Dark Side," Campbell said. "All we're doing is trying to collect the judgment it took 21U2 years to achieve."

James Lingl, the attorney who represents the old homeowners association, sees it differently.

"We have a receiver who has the authority to pay these bills," Lingl told the judge Wednesday. "But for whatever reason he would not pay them. This is a form of extortion, a squeeze play -- you either pay us or you lose your homes."