A judge said today she is leaning toward allowing Katy Perry to move forward with her cross-complaint allegations against a businesswoman with whom the singer is vying to buy a former convent in Los Feliz.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick issued a tentative ruling in favor of the “Roar” singer and against restaurant owner Dana Hollister. Bowick also said she is leaning toward denying a second motion by Hollister’s lawyer, Randy Snyder, to strike Perry’s claim for punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
But Bowick will consider arguments from attorneys during a hearing scheduled Friday before issuing a final ruling.
The 31-year-old entertainer’s cross-complaint, filed Sept. 24, asks that a judge declare her the party with the “sole and exclusive right to acquire title to the property” under a deal she previously reached with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Hollister is a defendant in the cross-complaint along with the archdiocese and the California Institute of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Snyder filed court papers seeking dismissal of four of Perry’s five causes of action, including those alleging intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and intentional interference with contractual relations.
The archdiocese started the litigation by filing suit against Hollister on June 19, stating that Hollister is considering using the property for a boutique hotel with a restaurant and bar. According to that lawsuit, the archdiocese’s lease of the buildings for a priests’ house of prayer has a remaining term of 77 years.
The sale to Hollister is favored by two nuns who are members of the California Institute of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The sale to Hollister was for $10 million, of which only $100,000 has been paid, according to the archdiocese. The proposed sale to Perry would be worth $14.5 million, consisting of $10 million in cash and an agreement to provide an alternative property for the house of prayer worth $4.5 million, according to the archdiocese.
Perry’s cross-complaint alleges that Hollister is an “opportunistic developer who falsely convinced certain elderly sisters of the Roman Catholic Church that they had the ability and authority to transfer to Hollister the real property that is the subject of this litigation.”
Hollister’s commercial plans for the convent violate current zoning and would disrupt the “quiet enjoyment of the neighbors,” Perry’s court papers state.
