Orlando Bloom is dragged into Katy Perry’s real estate battle after dying vet claimed he had unwittingly signed over $11M Montecito mansion

Actor Orlando Bloom has officially been dragged into what is expected to be a brutal lawsuit between his fiancée Katy Perry and the family of a dying veteran who claims he was forced to surrender his Montecito mansion to her, DailyMail.com has learned.

The family subpoenaed 47-year-old Bloom late Thursday to testify in the damages phase of a years-long real estate battle, which will begin on February 25.

“The family strongly believes that Orlando should testify as he was heavily involved in the property management after the keys were exchanged and had previously visited,” a source close to Westcott’s family told DailyMail.com.

Ailing Carl Westcott, 85, agreed to sell his 9,000-square-foot home, located on a 2.5-acre lot, to Perry for $11.25 million in 2020, but days later he tried to cancel the deal and claimed he was under the influence of painkillers when he signed. .

Realtor.com now values ​​the 8-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom property at more than $12.3 million.

A court ruled the contract was legitimate and late last year Perry, who turned 40 last week, was declared the legal owner of the gated 1930s estate, which features a tennis court, two guest houses and a swimming pool.

However, the Firework singer still wants to take around $6 million off the prize, claiming the bedridden octogenarian – who is currently receiving hospice care for Huntington’s disease – owes her huge sums for repairs and lost rental income.

But the family source disputed that. “The ‘damages’ being sought are absolutely egregious and Orlando is well aware of this.”

Perry will have to argue her case in person after a California judge ruled she must testify at an upcoming compensation trial, where she will face Westcott’s family, who say the “exhausting” battle has left her in the final days of marred their beloved patriarch. .

DailyMail.com understands that Westcott’s entire immediate family, including his sons Chart and Court Westcott – who is married to Real Housewives of Dallas alum Kameron Westcott – are all planning to go to LA Superior Court.

“It’s clearly evident that she’s trying to squeeze every last dollar out of Carl’s family, without any empathy, at the expense of an older man’s inheritance,” a family friend told us.

“The fact is that the Westcott family wants her to face them because they believe they deserve it. She took their father’s house and now she wants the shirt off his back.

“The least she can do is look them all in the eye while she does it.”

The sprawling 9,285-square-foot property in the Santa Ynez foothills has been registered since May under owner DDoveB, a nod to Perry’s three-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom.

Perry has put up $9 million in escrow to pay Westcott, a celebrated veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne who was born into a “dirt-poor” family in Mississippi.

He grew up in a shotgun house with no plumbing, but moved to LA where he founded several successful companies, including 1-800-Flowers.

His father had only a second-grade education and could not read or write, and Westcott was sent to a home for juvenile delinquents for selling school meal coupons.

But he straightened his life out when he moved to LA as a teenager and started selling cars, eventually opening his own dealerships.

“If you’re poor in Mississippi, you’re the poorest of the poor,” Westcott once said.

‘We didn’t have a car, and I always thought people with cars were rich. In fact, I thought people with lawns were quite remarkable.”

Exactly how much of the remaining $6 million Perry owes him will be determined by the second phase of their lengthy, four-year trial.

The compensation process was originally scheduled to take place this month and last several days. But Westcott’s lawyers argued for more time after Perry – worth an estimated $350 million – hired 25 experts to search the house for errors.

They will claim that the two-acre property is in need of repairs due to water damage, an oak tree that fell on a building and several other maintenance issues that arose while she waited years to move in.

She also wants about $3.5 million in lost rent she supposedly could have earned on the posh retreat, despite stating at the time of the sale that she planned to raise her daughter there.

Perry’s attorneys argued during a June 20 hearing that she and Bloom — who will also likely be subpoenaed and asked to testify — were essentially “laymen” and would instead rely on testimony from professional construction experts.

But Judge Joseph Lipner insisted: “As I sit here now, I fully expect Ms. Perry to be a witness.”

DailyMail.com previously revealed how Perry was caught up in the extraordinary dispute with Westcott after claiming his judgment was clouded by powerful drugs and ill health when he signed the deal on July 15, 2020.

He had only purchased the house in May of that year and had moved in two months before his dealings with Perry’s representative, Bernie Gudvi, who agreed to pay him $3,750,000 more than he had just purchased it for.

The then 80-year-old had been released from hospital just four days before the signing, after undergoing a six-hour back operation.

He took a powerful cocktail of opiates to dull the pain, his lawyers said.

When the medication wore off, Westcott said he realized he had made a mistake and informed Berkshire Hathaway by email on July 22 that he no longer intended to sell.

“The combination of his age, the frailty resulting from his back problems and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day, rendered Mr. Westcott insane,” his complaint argued.

Perry and Bloom’s agents ignored Westcott’s plea and wrote to him days later warning that they would file a lawsuit if he did not relinquish the property.

Westcott’s family took up the fight on his behalf after he became bedridden and mentally disabled due to Huntington’s disease, which attacks the brain and can cause progressive dementia.

She emerged victorious from the first phase of their trial last year after Judge Lipner ruled there was “no compelling evidence” that Westcott was incapable of signing the contract.

‘There are no grounds for withdrawal. The contract must be respected,” he concluded, leaving only the issue of damages — essentially how big the discount should be awarded to Perry, who did not personally testify — to be determined.

That wasn’t the first time Perry had legal trouble buying a home.

In 2015, she sparred with elderly Roman Catholic nuns over the sale of a convent she bought in 2015, paying $14.5 million in cash to Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez.

Sister Rita Callanan and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, who had lived at the convent since the 1970s, claimed Gomez had no right to transfer the property, saying they had sold it weeks earlier for $15.5 million.

But the archdiocese sued to block their deal, arguing that it was the nuns who had overstepped their authority.

A judge ruled against the nuns in 2016, awarding Perry and the archdiocese damages totaling more than $15 million.

During the 2018 legal battle, Sister Holzman, 89, collapsed and died during a court case.

That led Sister Callanan, the only surviving nun of the Order of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to declare that Perry had “blood on her hands.”