Judge's move could allow Katy Perry to rent a convent

The entertainer Katy Perry cannot close her proposed deal to buy an 8-acre convent property here anytime soon, but she may be able to rent it.

At a Thursday hearing, Judge James C. Chalfant of Los Angeles Superior Court said he planned to enter a new preliminary injunction that would bar the nuns of the Immaculate Heart of Mary order from completing their attempted sale of the property to a developer, Dana Hollister.

But Chalfant said Perry would similarly be blocked from buying the convent, valued at roughly $15 million, while he reaches a decision in a legal dispute that, by his estimate, may take two years to resolve.

In declaring his intention to replace a restraining order with the new injunction, Chalfant said he was reluctant to let the property sit idle, and invited Hollister and Perry to make competing proposals to rent the convent in advance of a new hearing, set for Sept. 15.

“We’ll have a battle of potential lessees,” Chalfant said.

He addressed a courtroom audience that occasionally became vocal, as two of the nuns and their supporters applauded the judge’s statements that acknowledged their suspicion of the promises by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to care for them with proceeds of its preferred sale to Perry, and groaned at assertions by lawyers for the church.

Though he invalidated the nuns’ attempted sale to Hollister - which he described as “a bad deal,” and little more than an option from which Hollister could exit after small cash payments - Chalfant agreed to let her keep possession of the convent pending the September hearing.

--2015 New York Times News Service