LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Los Angeles judge said today she is leaning toward affirming her rulings that blocked the sale of a former convent in Los Feliz to a businesswoman and cleared the way for its possible acquisition by singer Katy Perry. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick took the case under submission after hearing about two hours of arguments from attorneys who traded accusations concerning who knew about proceedings ongoing at the Vatican in Rome concerning the property at the time the judge canceled the sale to restaurant owner Dana Hollister in mid-April. Bowick did not say when she would issue her final ruling. Sisters Rita Callanan and Catherine Rose Holzman have intervened in the dispute between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and Hollister. The nuns used to live in the convent and tried to sell it to Hollister.
“The court finds that intervenors have not met their burden to show that there are new or different facts, circumstances or law to reconsider,” Bowick wrote in her tentative ruling.
The judge also said the nuns’ lawyers did not show why they could not have brought any new evidence before her sooner. Attorney John Scholnick, on behalf of Callanan and Holzman, and lawyer Randy Snyder, who represents Hollister, say Bowick should rethink her decision and point to what they say are newly discovered Vatican letters showing the archdiocese tried to hide facts from the court and all parties involved. Snyder said the letters contradict archdiocese attorney J. Michael Hennigan’s earlier statement to the court that there were no further proceedings going on in Rome prior to the time Bowick made her April rulings. But Hennigan said he qualified the remark to say that as far as he knew at the time, there were no issues regarding the property pending before the Vatican. He said that if the nuns and their attorney knew anything to the contrary, they should have said so.
Snyder and Scholnick say the new evidence consists of a March 22 letter sent by the Vatican to the archdiocese and a March 30 correspondence from Rome addressed to the two nuns. Both letters stated that the sale of the convent was still being reviewed in Rome, according to Snyder and Scholnick. “Once all the information from both parties has been adequately studied, we will inform you of our judgment regarding the matter at hand,” states the March 30 letter, which is signed by Father Sebastiano Paciolla, identified in the document as a Vatican undersecretary. Snyder said the nuns did not know of the March 30 letter addressed to them until May 17. Attorney Eric Rowen, on behalf of Perry and her company, Bird Nest LLC, said lawyers for Hollister and the nuns are trying to stall the sale to Perry. He said the sisters do not even have the legal right to intervene in the lawsuit. “Please don’t wait,” Rowen told Bowick.
“The delays are not only intolerable, but extremely prejudicial.” After the hearing, Henning said he was optimistic Bowick will uphold her tentative ruling. Scholnick said he was pleased the judge took the case under submission. He also said he may pursue a petition in the 2nd District Court of Appeal seeking to overturn the April rulings. Callanan said outside the courtroom that the dispute has no business being before a judge because a 1992 agreement between the archdiocese and the California Institute of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary calls for all disputes to be settled internally. Callanan and Holzman are two of five members of the institute. “We are a pontifical order,” she said. “We’re under Rome.”
The proposed sale to Perry would be for $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. In contrast, Hollister paid only $44,000 and agreed to a contingent promissory note, according to the archdiocese.