As the guardianship dispute over Brooke Astor rivets society circles in Manhattan, a tale with similar themes has been unfolding in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The Brooklyn drama has at its center an eccentric former civil court judge, John Phillips, 83, who has little in common with the famous socialite and philanthropist except for late life legal woes.

In his younger years, when Judge Phillips was not presiding over court cases, he ran a political club and developed a style of martial arts that he called “the gorilla-gnat system.” He owned a well-known theater and residential buildings in Brooklyn. He spoke of running for district attorney in Brooklyn until the present officeholder, Charles Hynes, initiated a guardianship proceeding against him in 2000 following reports that he was being taken advantage of financially in his old age.

Mr. Hynes’s office declined to comment for this article.

Although Judge Phillips, who retired from the bench in 1995, once had assets worth many millions, his bills now go unpaid. The court-appointed guardian over Judge Phillips’s property, Emani Taylor, said yesterday that the Bronx nursing home where Judge Phillips now resides has not been paid since she brought him there more than a year ago. Lawyers for the nursing home, East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation, are petitioning the court to receive payment for a bill of about $180,000, an attorney involved in the case, Ezra Glaser, said. Mr. Glaser represents the judge’s niece, who is guardian of Judge Phillips’s person but not his property.

The director of operations at the nursing home, Herschel Friedman, declined to comment yesterday.

The unpaid bill may prompt Judge Phillips’s return to Brooklyn, where the president of the Free Judge Phillips Committee, Deotha Woodburn, said she spent yesterday preparing for his return. Contacted by telephone, she said Judge Phillips does not now have a suitable place to live in Brooklyn. She said he would return to the borough today for a short visit before a permanent home was found for him.

Judge Phillips’s care has attracted an unusual amount of attention. In the days prior to an April court hearing regarding his guardianship, graffiti calling for Judge Phillips’s release from the Bronx appeared in Bedford-Stuyvesant. A Brooklyn folk singer who calls himself Papa Dish recorded a song this spring called “The Joe Hynes Blues,” which is about Judge Phillips and is dedicated to him.

Judge Phillips’s ordeal over the last six years is more than a cautionary tale against growing old, Mr. Glaser said. He said the judge in the case, Michael Pesce of state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, stripped Judge Phillips of more autonomy than was required. Mr. Glaser said the decision of one of Judge Phillips’s guardians to place him in the Bronx, two hours by train from Bedford Stuyvesant, was the equivalent of kidnapping him. A court order also limits the visitors Judge Phillips can see, Mr. Glaser said.

“I don’t mean Phillips doesn’t need help,” Mr. Glaser said. “He can’t do all the day-to-day things, and he’s considerably forgetful. But this doesn’t make sense. … When you don’t have a direct descendant you can wind up in court and lose all your rights like he did.”

Others say Judge Phillips requires substantial care. The guardian for his property, Ms. Taylor, said Judge Phillips can be unruly and once kicked a caregiver. She said that until she found a caregiver for him he was living in squalor. When contacted yesterday, Judge Phillips was unable to say what day it was or give his precise age.

Judge Phillips said yesterday he had been trying “off-and-on” since 2004 to return to Bedford-Stuyvesant to find out what has become of his properties. He said people have taken advantage of him since he was placed under guardianship.

“They all got together and the next thing I know they’ve stolen everything I’ve got,” Judge Phillips said from a telephone on the second floor of the nursing home, declining to provide further details. “I have an idea of who’s doing the stealing. These days when you’ve found an honest man you’ve found Jesus Christ’s brother.”

In court papers filed two weeks ago, Mr. Glaser said several of the properties were “sold at unpublished auctions at amounts that are far less than their fair market value.”

Currently at least three different people vie over who will be in charge of Judge Phillips. One faction backs Symphanie Moss, a niece, who pledges to bring Judge Phillips out of the Bronx and back to Bedford-Stuyvesant.

A nephew, Samuel Boykin, asked the court this year to make him guardian of Judge Phillips’s person, replacing Ms. Moss.

The guardian for Judge Phillips’s property, Ms. Taylor, said by telephone yesterday that she has asked Judge Pesce to remove her from the case on four occasions. Ms. Taylor said she brought Judge Phillips to the Bronx only because Ms. Moss was residing in Ohio and not able to offer any care.

Ms. Taylor defended her work as guardian, saying that before she took over his finances, old acquaintances of Judge Phillips were taking advantage of him. She also said he was not paying property taxes on any of his nine buildings.

“I’ve been in the process restoring Judge Phillips’s estate,” Ms. Taylor said. “It was through me being the guardian that I realized Judge Phillips didn’t have any title to any property at the time the guardianship proceeding was commenced in 2000.”