Katy Perry awarded $5m in damages
Katy Perry has been awarded almost $5 million in damages.
The ‘Firework’ hitmaker will pocket the sum after a long-running legal drama over a Los Angeles convent was settled on Monday (04.12.17), with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles awarded $10 million.
Speaking on behalf of Katy afterwards, attorney Eric Rowen told the Los Angeles Times: “We’re obviously very pleased.”
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $3.3 million to the 33-year-old singer through her company, the Bird Nest LLC, and $6.6 million to the Archdiocese in the lawsuit against restaurant owner Dana Hollister.
Katy and the Archdiocese had launched legal action against the businesswoman for trying to thwart the singer’s attempts to purchase the eight-acre Los Angeles property.
The lawsuit found she interfered with contractual relations and other misdeeds.
On November 17, $5 million of compensatory damages was awarded to the pair, $3.47 million to the Archdiocese and $1.57 million to Katy, as part of the legal battle.
Katy wanted to buy convent from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, run by Archbishop Jose Gomez, but businesswoman Dana stepped in to try to purchase the property, and she was said to be keen to turn it into a hotel.
The ‘Roar’ hitmaker is said to have previously offered $14.5 million for the convent.
Spokeswoman Monica Valencia previously said: “She wants to use it to care for her mother and her grandmother.”
Dana attempted to buy the property from two nuns from The Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary who had lived there.
But a judge voided the sale earlier this year, ruling the Archdiocese had the rights to offload the property rather than the nuns.
Katy and the Archdiocese are still said to be working out terms of a potential sale, but it would need Vatican approval.