Actor Orlando Bloom has officially been dragged into what is expected to be a brutal trial between his fiancee Katy Perry and the family of a dying veteran who claims he was forced to hand over his Montecito mansion to her, DailyMail.com has learned.
The family served Bloom, 47, with a subpoena Thursday night to testify in the damages phase of a years-long real estate battle, set to begin Feb. 25.
“The family strongly believes that Orlando should testify as he was very involved in the management of the property once the keys were exchanged and visited before,” a source close to Westcott’s family told DailyMail.com.
Ailing Carl Westcott, 85, agreed to sell his 9,000-square-foot home on a 2.5-acre lot to Perry in 2020 for $11.25 million, but days later he tried to reject the deal, claiming he was under the influence of painkillers when he signed. .
Realtor.com now values the 8-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom property at more than $12.3 million.
A court ruled the contract was legitimate and late last year Perry, who turned 40 last week, was declared the legal owner of the gated 1930s estate that features a tennis court, two guest houses and a swimming pool. .
Orlando Bloom has now officially been dragged into his fiancee Katy Perry’s real estate battle.
Carl Westcott, with his children Court (center) and Chart in 2016, is currently receiving palliative care for Huntington’s disease.
However, the Firework singer still wants to reduce the price by around $6 million, claiming that the bedridden octogenarian, who is currently receiving palliative care for Huntington’s disease, owes her huge sums of money for repairs and lost rental income. .
But the family source questioned it. “The ‘damages’ being sought are absolutely atrocious and Orlando is well aware of all of this.”
Perry will have to present his case in person after a California judge ruled that he must present evidence in an upcoming damages trial where he will go head-to-head with Westcott’s family, who say the “grueling” battle has marred the last days of their beloved patriarch. .
DailyMail.com understands that Westcott’s entire immediate family, including her children Chart and Court Westcott, who is married to Real Housewives of Dallas alum Kameron Westcott, plan to attend Los Angeles Superior Court.
“It is clearly evident that he is trying to squeeze every last dollar out of Carl’s family without the slightest empathy at the expense of an elderly man’s legacy,” a family friend told us.
‘The fact is that the Westcott family want her to confront them because they believe they deserve it. She has taken over her father’s house and now she wants to take his shirt.
“The least you can do is look them all in the eye while you do it.”
The sprawling 9,285-square-foot compound in the Santa Ynez foothills has been registered under owner DDoveB, a nod to Perry’s three-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, since May.
Perry has put $9 million in escrow to pay Westcott, a celebrated veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne who was born to a “very poor” family in Mississippi.
He grew up in a shotgun house with no plumbing, but moved to Los Angeles, where he founded several successful companies, including 1-800-Flowers.
His father had only a second-grade education and could not read or write, and Westcott was sent to a home for juvenile delinquents for selling school lunch vouchers.
But he got his life back when he moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and started selling cars, eventually opening his own dealerships.
Perry, 40, successfully acquired the massive property through his LLC, DDoveB, named for his daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, on May 17.
Carl Westcott grew up ‘the poorest of the poor’ in Mississippi in a shotgun house with no plumbing
Perry and Bloom wrote a personal letter to Westcott following the sale of the property in 2020.
“When you’re poor in Mississippi, you’re the poorest of the poor,” Westcott once said.
“We didn’t have a car and I always thought that people with cars were rich. In fact, I thought people with grass were quite extraordinary.
The exact amount of the remaining $6 million balance owed by Perry will be determined in the second phase of his protracted four-year court saga.
The trial for damages was originally scheduled for this month and would last several days. But Westcott’s lawyers asked for more time after Perry, worth an estimated $350 million, hired 25 experts to review the house for flaws.
They will argue that the two-acre property needs repairs from water damage, an oak tree that fell on a building and several other maintenance issues that arose while she waited years to move out.
She also wants about $3.5 million in lost rent she allegedly could have earned at the posh retreat despite stating at the time of the sale that she planned to raise her daughter there.
Perry’s attorneys argued at a June 20 hearing that she and Bloom — who will also likely be subpoenaed and asked to testify — were essentially “laymen” and would rely instead on statements from professional construction experts.
Katy Perry has been ordered to testify in an upcoming damages trial over the years-long legal battle over the Montecito mansion.
But Judge Joseph Lipner insisted: “As I sit here right now, I definitely hope that Ms. Perry will be a witness.”
DailyMail.com previously revealed how Perry had become caught up in the extraordinary dispute with Westcott after claiming his judgment was clouded by powerful medications and health problems when he signed the deal on July 15, 2020.
He had only purchased the house in May of that year and moved in two months before negotiating with Perry’s manager, Bernie Gudvi, who agreed to pay him $3.75 million more than what he had just purchased.
The then 80-year-old had been discharged from hospital just four days before signing, having undergone a six-hour back operation.
He was taking a powerful cocktail of opioids to relieve the pain, his lawyers said.
When the drug wore off, Westcott said he realized he had made a mistake and informed Berkshire Hathaway by email on July 22 that he no longer intended to sell.
“The combination of his age, weakness from his back problem and recent surgery, and the opioids he took several times a day made Mr. Westcott mentally ill,” his complaint argued.
Perry and Bloom’s agents ignored Westcott’s request and wrote to him days later to warn him that they would sue him if he did not relinquish the property.
Westcott’s family took up the fight on his behalf after he became bedridden and mentally incapacitated due to Huntington’s disease, which attacks the brain and can cause progressive dementia.
She emerged victorious in the first phase of her trial last year after Judge Lipner ruled there was “no compelling evidence” that Westcott lacked the capacity to sign the contract.
At a June 20 hearing, Perry’s attorneys argued that she and Bloom were essentially “laymen” and relied on statements from professional construction experts.
In 2015, Perry was in a battle with elderly Catholic nuns over the sale of a convent. Sister Rita Callanan (right) and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman lived on the eight-acre property that includes a 30,000-square-foot Spanish Gothic house. until 2011
‘There are no reasons for termination. The contract must be respected,” he concluded, leaving only the question of damages to be determined (essentially, how much discount will be granted to Perry, who did not give evidence in person).
That wasn’t the first time Perry had legal problems when buying a house.
In 2015, she argued with elderly Roman Catholic nuns over the sale of a convent she purchased in 2015, paying $14.5 million in cash to Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles.
Sister Rita Callanan and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, who had lived at the convent since the 1970s, claimed Gomez had no right to get rid of the property and said they had already sold it weeks earlier for $15.5 million.
But the Archdiocese sued to block their agreement, arguing that it was the nuns who had exceeded their authority.
A judge ruled against the nuns in 2016 and awarded Perry and the Archdiocese damages totaling more than $15 million.
During the 2018 legal battle, Sister Holzman, 89, collapsed and died during a court appearance.
That led Sister Callanan, the only surviving nun living in the Order of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to declare that Perry had “blood on his hands.”