In two weeks Katy Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom will duke it out in court with an ailing, bed-ridden 83 year old army veteran, Carl Westcott, over his $15 million Santa Barbara home.
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(NewsNation) — Carl Westcott, 83, bought his dream house in 2020, but just two months later, signed a real estate contract selling it to popstar Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom — a move Westcott claims he does not remember as he was on opioids and painkillers. The vet, who suffers from Huntington’s Disease (which causes neurological damage and dementia), says he bought the beachfront home to live out the remainder of his days… but Perry and Bloom are claiming the signature is valid and he must move out of the eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom home.
Westcott’s complaint, obtained by DailyMail.com, says he not only never listed the property but he also never even spoke to a broker about listing it. And if he did, he says he wasn’t of sound mind and didn’t know what he was doing.
According to the complaint, Westcott underwent a six-hour back surgery on July 11, 2020.
“Upon discharge from the hospital, Mr. Westcott was prescribed at least two opiates in pill form that he was to continue taking for pain, which he took as prescribed several times each day,” the complaint states. “The combination of his age, frailty from his back condition and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day rendered Mr. Westcott of unsound mind.”
Three days later, Westcott was presented with an offer on his house by Perry and Bloom’s agent, Bernie Gudvi – and a day later, while still on powerful painkillers, he signed it. His lawyers claim that, due to being on medications, Westcott was “unable to understand the nature and probable consequences of his actions.”
The complaint alleges that once Westcott “started to feel mentally clear again” he realized what had happened and tried to undo the sale. According to the complaint, “On July 22, Westcott sent an email to Berkshire Hathaway, the dual agent for the seller and buyer, saying that he did not want to sell his home, described how he had been under the influence of pain medication and said he was ‘in the final years of his life and cannot sell his home.’”
His plea fell on deaf ears and lawyers for Perry, Bloom and the real estate agent, Gudvi, hired lawyers who advised Westcott he was legally obligated to complete the sale.
The trial starts in two weeks — a trial Westcott will not be attending as, according to his lawyers, “His disease has left him permanently mentally incapacitated and bedridden.”
Shockingly, this is not the first time Perry has taken an elderly person to court in her pursuit of real estate gems she wants.
In 2015, Perry bought a Los Angeles convent form the archdiocese for $14.5 million in cash. But the nuns who lived there, the Order of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, claimed they had purchased it in 1972 after pooling their private money — and sold the eight-acre property to someone else.
During the court battle in 2018, Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, 89, died on the stand while facing Perry’s legal team. Her last words were, “Katy Perry. Please stop.”
Perry did not stop, eventually not only getting the convent but $15 million in damages. Holzman’s best friend, Sister Callanan told the New York Post in 2019 the court battle had left her “nearly paralyzed, penniless and without a home,” and saying Perry has “blood on her hands.”