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Artist News Legal
Katy Perry wins right to buy former convent, though sale still requires Vatican approval
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 17 March 2017
Katy Perry has won a legal battle to purchase a former convent as her new home in LA, after two years in limbo. She just needs final approval from the Pope now and then she can get on with renting a Transit van to shift her stuff over to the new place.
As previously reported, Perry bought the hilltop property overlooking Hollywood from the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in 2015. However, the Sisters Of The Immaculate Heart Of Mary, who previously occupied the house, reckoned they’d already sold it to local restaurateur Dana Hollister. Moreover, the nuns said that selling the property to the popstar would be a violation of their vows to God, and sought earthly judgement on the matter.
The battle has gone back and forth in either side’s favour over the last two years, with rulings, appeals, overturnings and a healthy dose of bizarre arguments (the latest apparently being that the convent couldn’t go to Perry due to her involvement in witchcraft).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge overseeing the case has now made a final ruling in Perry’s favour, saying: “The court finds that the sisters did not have authority to sell the property to Hollister. Even assuming that the Sisters had the authority to dispose of the property, which they did not, they nevertheless failed to validly consummate the transaction. The deal documents were not properly documented”.
In a statement, the Archdiocese of LA, which brokered the sale to Perry in the first place, said that its interest all along was the wellbeing of the nuns, who had moved out of the building in 2011 when it became too costly to run.
The statement reads: “The Archdiocese was forced to take legal action in 2015 on behalf of all the Sisters when developer Dana Hollister took possession of their property without proper authorisation for just $44,000 and a contingent promissory note without any guarantee that the Sisters would ever receive any additional payment. Judge Bowick’s current ruling upholds her April 2016 ruling, which affirms that the Hollister sale was invalid and that Hollister has no right, title or valid interest in the property”.
Although the US courts have now properly sided with Perry, the sale still requires final approval from the Vatican, as was suggested last June.
