Katy Perry Lawyer Says Seller Was Rational in $15M Mansion Sale

The rights to a Santa Barbara mansion belong to pop star Katy Perry, her agent’s lawyer said during opening arguments Wednesday.

The seller’s earnest search for a new home in the days after he signed the contract, despite recovering from surgery and taking prescribed opiates, shows that he was “more than rational” her lawyers argue.

The parties are in California state court over ownership of the eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom estate that Perry and her partner Orlando Bloom purchased for $15 million from Carl Westcott, a serial entrepreneur and founder of 1-800-Flowers, in 2020.

Lawyers for Westcott, who was 80 years old at the time, said the businessman couldn’t consent to the contract with the pop star’s agent, Bernie Gudvi, in July 2020 due to his cognitive decline combined with delirium after spinal fusion surgery and intoxication from prescribed opiates.

Westcott’s 2015 Huntington’s disease diagnosis manifests in erratic behavior, as evidenced by his “party animal” lifestyle the late 2010s, that included “Hollywood people” and illegal drugs, Gordon Kemper LLP partner Andrew Thomas told Judge Joseph Lipner Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The businessman’s surgery exacerbated his impulsiveness when he signed real estate forms on July 15, 2020, Thomas said.

But Eric Rowen, co-chair of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s real estate litigation practice, representing Perry’s agent, said that Westcott spoke with brokers before and after the surgery. He also began searching for a new home in the days after he sold to Perry and Bloom, showing his understanding of the deal.

Additionally, Westcott sold the property for an 88% return just 45 days after he purchased it, a savvy deal, Rowen said.

Westcott, the father-in-law of “Real Housewives of Dallas” star Kameron Westcott, purchased his home for $11.25 million and moved into it just months prior to signing its sale on July 15, 2020. Kameron Westcott sat with the petitioners’ family in the courtroom during opening arguments. Westcott’s sons, Court and Chart Westcott, were removed from the courtroom because they’re likely to be called as witnesses.

Westcott attempted to back out of the sale in an email on July 22, 2020. Perry and Orlando Bloom wrote a letter back that day saying they were expecting a baby and wanted to raise the child in the home. Neither party has been able to use the property since then.

In addition to the property, Perry is asking for lawyers fees, $2.7 million to cover the cost of a similar rental in the area and $3.21 million in damages for lost rent that the “California Gurls” singer would have earned from the house had the sale gone to plan. Perry didn’t intend to rent out the house, Rowen said, but that figure is the value of using the house that she was deprived of since the summer of 2020, he said.

This isn’t the first time Perry has taken an octogenarian to court over claims to property.

An 89-year-old nun collapsed and died in a 2018 post-judgment hearing a couple of years after Perry won a suit to buy a $15 million convent that the nuns said an archbishop illegally sold to the “I Kissed a Girl” singer. The nuns weren’t fans “for what should be obvious reasons coming from Catholic nuns,” they said in a court filing.

Whether Perry will testify during the trial is not yet clear, although petitioners said in court Wednesday that they want to see her take the stand, and she is included on a Sept. 8 witness list.

Gordon Kemper LLP is representing Westcott. Greenberg Traurig LLP is representing Gudvi.

The case is Westcott v. Gudvi, Cal. Super. Ct., No. 20STCV29664, opening arguments 9/27/23.