On May 17, 2015, Bruno announced to parishioners of St. James the Great, Newport Beach, that he had sold the church for $15 million to Legacy Partners Residential Development to be re-developed into 22 luxury townhomes. After dispute and protests from the church's parishioners over their will to remain an active parish and deed restrictions, on June 26, 2015, Bruno sued the original donor of the land of the church, the Griffith Company of Irvine, California, for title slander. On June 29, 2015, representatives of the Diocese of Los Angeles changed the locks of St. James the Great, Newport Beach, so that parishioners could no longer access the church.