Katy Perry handed a win in court case over owner refusing to sell $15 million California home

A Los Angeles judge agreed Katy Perry should be able to purchase a $15 million home in Montecito, California, after its owner sought to rescind the sales contract, claiming he was of "unsound mind" when he'd signed it.

Judge Joseph Lipner weighed in on the breach-of-contract dispute in a proposed statement of decision filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday, obtained by USA TODAY on Wednesday. Lipner wrote that the July 2020 contract between the home's owner, the entrepreneur Carl Westcott, and Bernie Gudvi, who was purchasing the real estate on Perry's behalf, "must be respected."

Westcott "presented no persuasive evidence that he lacked capacity to enter into a real estate contract," Lipner wrote in his decision. "Moreover, (Westcott) entered into other contracts shortly before and shortly after the contact at issue here. Westcott has not attempted to rescind any of these other contracts for lack of capacity."

This is a tentative decision by the court and will become permanent after 10 days, unless either party "files and serves a document that specifies controverted issues or makes proposals not covered in the tentative decision."

Perry had planned to move into the home with fiancé Orlando Bloom and daughter Daisy Dove, who was born in August 2020.

"Today’s proposed decision is clear," Eric Rowen, an attorney representing Gudvi, said in a statement to USA TODAY on Wednesday. "The judge found that Mr. Westcott could not prove anything other than he was of perfectly sound mind when he engaged in complex negotiations over several weeks with multiple parties to transact a lucrative sale of the property that netted him a substantial profit."

Rowen's statement continued: "The evidence shows that Mr. Westcott breached the contract for no other reason than he had changed his mind. We look forward to wrapping this matter up at the scheduled damage trial phase set for February 13 and 14, if not before.”

USA TODAY has reached out to attorneys for Westcott for comment.

A two-day trial for Gudvi's claims for damages is scheduled for February, with Perry slated to testify.

Man claimed he 'had not been himself' on pain killers when he sold his Montecito property to Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom

In July 2020, Westcott and Gudvi entered into an agreement for him to sell the property for $15 million. Four days later, he "attempted to rescind the contract," per Lipner.

Two weeks later, he filed a complaint seeking a cancellation of the contract, to which Gudvi filed a cross-complaint claiming a breach of contract two days afterward. A seven-day trial took place between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5, with closing arguments on Nov. 3.

Westcott, who purchased the property in May 2020, profited $3.75 million from the sale, according to the judge's Nov. 7 filing.

According to Westcott's 2020 complaint, the business proposal came days after the entrepreneur had undergone surgery. Upon release from the hospital, Westcott was prescribed numerous medications for his recovery that allegedly left him in an intoxicated state. He realized he "had not been himself due to the combination of his age, frailty, Huntington’s disease, the six-hour surgery and especially the intoxicating effects of the opiate painkillers he had been taking several times each day," per his complaint.

Westcott's legal team had a doctor, whose focus is geriatric psychiatry, testify that the homeowner was cognitively impaired when he entered the contract. In his Nov. 7 decision, Lipner wrote that the court "did not find his expert opinion of lack of capacity supported, credible or persuasive."

After alerting the buyers to his change of heart, Westcott was given a letter from Perry and Bloom describing the couple's interest in purchasing the home, according to his complaint. Westcott remained adamant that he couldn't sell his home as the then 80-year-old was in "the final few years of his life."

Following his refusal to sell his home, Westcott received another letter from an attorney representing Gudvi, Perry and Bloom, per Westcott's lawsuit. The letter stated Perry and Bloom were "not willing to walk away from purchasing Mr. Westcott’s home and he is obligated to complete the sale."

Contributing: Edward Segarra, USA TODAY

What happened?Carl Westcott's claims in his 2020 filing against Perry's manager