Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry are reportedly involved in a legal battle with an elderly veteran over the California home they made an offer on back in 2020.
The dispute stems from the engaged couple’s attempt to buy a mansion in Montecito, California for $15million (£11.8million) from army veteran Carl Westcott, 83, three years ago.
According to the Daily Mail, Westcott had moved into the home two months before the couple bought the estate. Westcott had allegedly signed a real estate contract to sell his home, but later claimed he was under the influence of opioids and painkillers after major back surgery.
In court documents obtained by Daily Mail and The New York Post, Westcott “lacked the mental capacity to understand the nature and probable consequences of the contract”.
A week after signing, Westcott said he began to feel “mentally clear again” after his surgery medication wore off.
Westcott subsequently wrote an email to Berkshire Hathaway, the dual agent for the seller and buyer, saying that he did not want to go through with the sale.
In response, Perry and Bloom’s representative presented Westcott with an increased financial offer – more than he paid for the home. Westcott responded that he “gave it his deepest consideration, but that he is in the final few years of his life and he cannot sell his home”.
Westcott then received a letter from a lawyer advising that the couple were “not willing to walk away from purchasing Mr Westcott’s home and he [was] obligated to complete the sale”. His lawyers have argued that the contract is “voidable” due to their client’s poor health.
Documents also claim that that due to Westcott’s age, Huntington’s disease and “a major six-hour surgery less than a week before the proposed contract”, it had “seriously impaired [his] mental faculties to the point he was of unsound mind and not competent to give his free, voluntary, or intelligent consent to the contract”.
A non-jury trial for the dispute is set for August 21 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, where his family are representing him.
Back in 2017, Perry was involved in another property dispute and was awarded $3.3million (£2.6million) in damages after a lengthy legal battle over her attempts to buy a Los Angeles convent.
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