The legal battle over a prime, sprawling piece of Los Angeles real estate that pop star Katy Perry wants to buy, turned up another notch in recent days.

Two nuns from the order of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which owns the convent housed on the Los Feliz property, are seeking a restraining order in LA County Superior Court against Los Angeles Archbiship Jose Gomez, claiming that he had no legal right to sell the eight-acre property to Perry.

According to the petition, filed by Sisters Rita Callanan and Catherine Rose Holzman, Gomez elected himself and Monsignor Joseph Brennan as directors and officers of the order on June 5, when he knew that the order’s legal counsel was traveling.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat House in Los Feliz.
Photo: Courtesy of LosFelizRegister.com.

The nuns argue in their petition that the elections were “contrary to the constitution of the religious order. . .which provides that only sisters may serve as superior general, assistant superior general and general councilers, and therefore as directors or officers.”

Callanan and Holzman, who were elected in June, had already sold the property to restauranteur Dana Hollister.

Perry reportedly offered $10 million in cash for the property, and another $4.5 million to buy a new retreat house for priests.

The sisters are seeking a finding that Homez’s amendment of the order’s bylaws is invalid.

All parties are due back in court on July 30.

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