By AP
Claremore, OK – Okla. hospital must pay $1M to Garth Brooks
CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) An Oklahoma jury has ruled that a hospital in Garth Brooks' hometown must pay him $1 million because it didn't build a women's center to honor his late mother.
Jurors sided with Brooks Tuesday in the breach-of-contract lawsuit he filed against Integris (ihn-TEG'-rihs) Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon. Jurors ruled the hospital must return Brooks' $500,000 donation and pay $500,000 in punitive damages.
The hospital argued that Brooks gave it unrestricted access to the donation and only later asked that the hospital honor his mother. She died of cancer in 1999.
Brooks says he thought he'd reached a deal in 2005 with the hospital's president for the women's center. Brooks sued after the hospital said it wanted to use the money for other projects.