Katy Perry is facing a bitter legal battle with the family of the dying veteran who was forced to hand over his Montecito estate to her in a long-running property dispute, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Ailing Carl Westcott, 84, agreed to sell his eight-bed home to Perry in 2020 for $15 million, but days later tried to rescind the deal, claiming he was under the influence of painkillers when has signed.
A court ruled that the contract was legal and late last year Perry was declared the legal owner of the 1930s gated estate, which boasts a tennis court, two guest houses and a swimming pool.
The Firework singer still wants about $6 million off the price, claiming the bedridden octogenarian – currently receiving hospice care for Huntington’s disease – owes her huge sums in repairs and lost rental income.
But she will have to make her case in person after a California judge ruled that Perry must testify at an upcoming damages trial, where she will come face-to-face with Westcott’s furious relatives, who say the “exhausting” battle has darkened their beloved last days of the patriarch.
DailyMail.com understands that all of Westcott’s immediate family, including his sons Chart and Court Westcott – who is married to Real Housewives of Dallas alum Cameron Westcott – all plan to attend Los Angeles Superior Court.
“It’s plainly obvious that she’s trying to squeeze every last dollar out of Carl’s family without an ounce of sympathy at the expense of an elderly man’s inheritance,” a family friend told us.
“The fact is the Westcotts want her to face them because they believe they deserve it. She has taken their father’s house and now she wants the shirt off his back.
“The least he can do is look them all in the eye while he does it.”
The sprawling 9,285-square-foot compound in the Santa Ynez foothills has been listed since May to owner DDoveB, a nod to Perry’s three-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom.
Perry has put $9 million in escrow to pay Westcott, a famous veteran of the US 101st Airborne who was born into a “poor” family in Mississippi.
He grew up in a shotgun house with no plumbing, but moved to LA where he built several successful companies, including 1-800-Flowers.
His father only had 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 together when he moved to LA as a teenager and started selling cars, eventually opening his own dealerships.
“When you’re poor in Mississippi, it’s the poorest of the poor,” Westcott once said.
“We didn’t have a car and I always thought people with cars were rich. I actually thought people with lawns were pretty remarkable.
Exactly how much of the remaining $6 million Perry owes him will be determined by the second phase of their lengthy, four-year legal saga.
The compensation trial was originally supposed to take place this month and last several days. But Westcott’s lawyers pleaded for more time after Perry — worth about $350 million — hired 25 experts to search the house for mistakes.
They will claim the two-acre property is in need of repairs due to water damage, an oak tree falling on a building and various other maintenance issues that occurred while she waited years to move in.
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She is also seeking about $3.5 million in lost rent she could have earned from the luxury retreat, although she said 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 is also likely to be subpoenaed and asked to testify — are essentially “nonprofessionals” and would instead rely on statements from professional construction experts.
But Judge Joseph Lipner insisted: “As I sit here at this minute, I certainly expect Ms. Perry to be a witness.”
DailyMail.com previously revealed how Perry became embroiled in the exclusive row with Westcott after he claimed his judgment was clouded by powerful drugs and ill health when he signed the deal on July 15, 2020.
He had only purchased the home in May of that year and had moved in two months prior to his deals with Perry’s agent, Bernie Goodvey, who agreed to pay him $3,750,000 more than he had just bought it for.
The then 80-year-old was released from hospital just four days before the signing after undergoing a six-hour back operation.
He was on a strong cocktail of opiates to numb the pain, his lawyers said.
When the drug disappeared, Westcott said he realized he had made a mistake and informed Berkshire Hathaway via email on July 22 that he no longer intended to sell.
“The combination of his age, weakness from his back condition and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day rendered Mr. Westcott mentally unsound,” his complaint argued.
Perry and Bloom’s agents ignored Westcott’s plea, writing to him days later to warn him that they would sue if he did not give up the property.
Westcott’s family took up the fight on his behalf after he was left bedridden and mentally incapacitated by Huntington’s disease, which attacks the brain and can cause progressive dementia.
She emerged victorious in the first phase of their trial last year after Judge Lipner ruled there was “no compelling evidence” that Westcott lacked the capacity to sign the contract.
“There are no grounds for cancellation. The contract must be honored,” he concluded, leaving only the question of damages — essentially how much of a discount to give Perry, who did not testify in person — to be determined.
This wasn’t the first time Perry had legal trouble when it came to buying a home.
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 Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez.
Sister Rita Callanan and Sister Catherine Rose Holtzman, who have lived at the convent since the 1970s, argued that Gomez had no right to unload the property and said they had already sold it weeks before for $15.5 million.
But the Archdiocese filed a lawsuit to block their deal, arguing that the nuns had overstepped their authority.
A judge ruled against the nuns in 2016 and awarded Perry and the Archdiocese a total of more than $15 million in damages.
During the 2018 legal battle, Sister Holtzman, 89, collapsed and died during a court appearance.
This prompted Sister Callanan, the only surviving nun who lived in the Order of the Most Sacred and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to declare that Perry had “blood on her hands”.
