Katy Perry May Be Forced to Deal With Testifying in Court Battle With Veteran in Middle of Tour

Katy Perry may be forced to deal with testifying in her court battle with 85-year-old veteran, Carl Westcott, in the middle of her upcoming tour, In Touch can exclusively report.

The pop star was ordered to testify as part of the legal battle between her business manager, Bernie Gudvi, and Carl.

The legal drama has been going on since Carl sued Bernie in 2020. Carl claimed he mistakenly sold his Santa Barbara, California, mansion to Bernie, for Katy, 40, and her partner Orlando Bloom, while he was heavily medicated while recovering from surgery.

Carl, who founded 1-800-Flowers, tried to back out of the deal to sell the pad.

He said Katy’s team refused to void the deal despite him claiming he was not in the right mind to execute the deal.

During phase one of the trial, which went down in November 2023, the court found the deal was enforceable and ordered Carl to turn over the keys to Katy’s business manager. Katy and Orlando, 48, then took possession of the home.

However, Katy’s business manager has demanded damages. Phase two of the trial has been postponed several times and is currently scheduled for February 25.

The entertainer, who is a witness in the case, was ordered to testify regarding damages for no longer than one hour. This week, Carl’s lawyer, Andrew J. Thomas, pleaded for the trial date to be postponed once again.

Andrew claimed he has been experiencing serious health issues which make it impossible for him to do all that is needed to prepare for the upcoming trial. Andrew said pushing the trial would not prejudice Bernie or his principal, Katy.

He said the home was “conveyed to Katy Perry after an escrow instruction substituting her as the buyer in lieu of [Bernie].”

Andrew added, “She has been in possession since the summer of 2024. The extant issues pertain solely to money, and not to a delay in obtaining title or possession. Under these circumstances, continuing the trial and related deadlines, based on the medical unavailability of an ill trial lawyer in solo practice results in zero prejudice to anyone.”

Andrew explained that Bernie did not oppose the trial being continued but slammed Bernie’s lawyer.

He said instead of engaging in “in professionalism upon learning of an unforeseen serious illness of an opposing counsel (in sole practice), [Bernie’s] counsel embarked on a series of acts that anyone would interpret as trying to take unfair advantage of the illness of counsel by seeking an order to exclude experts that was clearly designed to prejudice the substantive rights of the ill attorney’s client.”

Bernie’s lawyer fired back claiming Carl’s motion was filled with, “a series of demonstrably false statements and presents deceptive excerpts from counsel’s email communications over the last month.”

The lawyer for Bernie said he wished Andrew a speedy recovery but did not agree to deadlines for experts being deposed being extended too.

Bernie’s lawyer noted, “Westcott’s counsel has been ill since December 27, 2024 — more than a month ago. Yet, at no time before this week did Westcott’s counsel state or suggest that he had a medical condition that required postponing depositions for weeks or ceasing all work on the case; to the contrary, he continuously kept telling Westcott’s counsel for weeks that his experts would be deposed imminently.”

He argued, “It is unfortunate that the working relationship between counsel has now deteriorated into months of [Carl’s] silence, delay, empty promises, and personal attacks. But [Bernie] does not oppose a short continuance. However, that courtesy should not simply excuse [Carl] from his months of total inactivity on this case while he was not ill; the parties had the luxury of more than a year of extra time to complete expert discovery, and they should have completed it by last summer at the latest.”

The lawyer continued, “The case has been pending for more than 4.5 years, it involves a straightforward remedies issue that should have been tried ages ago.”

At a hearing on January 29, the judge granted Carl’s lawyer’s request to continue the trial date.

The court said it would pick a new date after speaking to both sides. A hearing has been set for February 10 for the parties to discuss. The court proposed trial dates in the ranges of May 19 – June 20, sometime in July or August 1 – August 29. The court told Carl if his lawyer cannot make it by August then he needs a new lawyer.

The only problem with the potential trial dates proposed by the court is Katy starts a nationwide tour in May.

The shows start on May 7 in Houston, Texas and ends on August 23 in Miami, Florida. The singer has a five week break in between a May 21 show in Dallas, Texas and the next show on July 12 in Phoenix, Arizona. Regardless, if the court sets a date in the proposed timeframes, Katy may have to deal with preparing for and giving testimony in the case in the middle of her tour.

As In Touch first reported, Katy’s team recently opposed a subpoena Carl’s team fired off to her partner, Orlando. Bernie said Orlando had no information relevant to the case and the that the “subpoena is to harass Mr. Bloom so as to further sensationalize and turn the narrow scope of this remedies phase of the trial into a media circus. A judge has yet to rule on Orlando being forced to testify.