Country singer Garth Brooks is suing his hometown hospital for reneging on their promise to use his 1/2 million dollar donation to fund a new building named after his late mom. Brooks has filed a $500,000 breach of contract lawsuit against Integris Canadian Valley Regional hospital in Yukon, Oklahoma for not using his 2005 gift as agreed on. The hospital never put up the building to be named after Brooks’ mom, who died of cancer ten years ago, and Brooks is said to be “heartbroken” over it.
Unanswered Prayers” singer Garth Brooks says that his quest to make his mother’s name “More Than a Memory” at an Oklahoma hospital has gone unfulfilled – and he’s suing the medical center for $500,000 as a result.
Four years ago, the recently out-of-retirement country crooner says, he gave Integris Canadian Valley Regional hospital in Yukon, Okla., the half million dollars to finance a building that would bear the name of his mother, Colleen Brooks, who died of cancer in 1999.
But, according to a court filing by Brooks, 47, the hospital never included the promised building in a $27 million expansion project, leaving CVR in breach of contract, TMZ reports.
“Garth’s heart is broken over this,” a source close to Brooks tells PEOPLE.
A hospital spokesman tells TMZ that there’s been a misunderstanding, and that they’re hoping for a “swift and amicable end.”
Not likely. Brooks’s rep tells PEOPLE: “This deals with his mother, the home town and the people he grew up with and is deeply personal.”
[From People]
I understand why Brooks is suing the hospital. Some people are going to say that he gave them the money and shouldn’t have a say in how it’s used. If officials promised to name a building after his mom and never did it then he should call them on it. It’s not like Brooks is being stingy or this is his only good deed lately. Brooks started his own charity in 1999, Teammates for Kids, which involves professional athletes donating money based on their game performance. According to their website, Teammates for Kids has raised $75 million for children’s charities thanks to professional baseball, football, soccer, basketball and hockey players. Garth has also donated over a million of his own money to wildlife charities, and he performed four concerts last year to benefit California wildfire victims.
Brooks, 47, recently came out of retirement after eight years to perform a long-running stint in Vegas. Brooks has three daughters from his first marriage: Taylor, 17, August, 15, and Allie, 13. His second wife, singer Tricia Yearwood, 45, said in an interview on The View in 2007 that she found Brooks’ children intimidating at first but that she soon warmed up to them and that she loves having them around. “You fall in love with them. You learn why people have kids.” That’s really sweet.
Shown are Tricia Yearwood and Garth Brooks at his announcement that he’ll be coming out of retirement to perform in Vegas. 10/15/09. Credit: Judy Eddy/WENN.com
That was a very generous gift I think his mother should be honored.
Funny, he has helped raise and also donated large sums of money for different charities, and there haven’t been a slew of articles about him, or what an attention whore he is. Cool.
He has every right ….
Lilred,
It is now that people give $500 to chariy and shout it at the roof tops when they have a movie coming out or they are having a spate of negative press. But there as so many celebrities who have given so much to charity but never use their generosity as self promotion like a certain coked starlet who save a million Indian Children and YOU KNOW WHO who leak their donations to the press and use photo ops every time they step in a third world country.
Rupert Everett admitted that celebrities use charity for positive press and that his publicist often told him to visit the third world countries and pose with starving kids and that he hated it because it traumatized him.
I think a donation is a donation. Period.
I guess if the agreement was for a building to have her name, then he can be a petty ass about it.
If I were the hospital, I would get to slapping a sign up someplace.
The article says Garth gave the money for financing the building. It wasn’t a donation, it was funding.
Considering the hospital’s reaction to the lawsuit, they know they were in the wrong. It’s hard to know exactly what people are thinking just by examining their words, but the hospital seems to be preparing to grovel.
Good for Garth for calling out the hospital on their promise.
Excellent clarification Snowball. I think the thunder is about to roll.
Even if it was a donation, a donor is allowed to restrict what the money is used for. If the organization does not use the money as intended, there are certainly legal consequences. This is seriously “non profit 101” stuff. The hospital should know better. If Garth sent in payment with a letter requesting that the money be used to build a new wing with the name “Jane Doe,” the hospital MUST follow the written requests if they accept the money. I don’t blame him for suing.
They live in the same small town that my sister does. She works in retail and see them quite often. She said they are both very nice normal people and don’t act like they are better then everyone else. Last year for Christmas my sister asked Trisha to sign the cookbook she wrote so I now have a personalized, signed cookbook from Trisha Yearwood.
I also work at a large non-profit company and if someone makes a donation to us and they specify what they want to fund we have to do as they wish or we don’t take the donation. The same applies to most all organizations that accept donations. If the hospital took Garth’s money with the stipulation that they would build a building and name it after his mom then that is what they should have done….. period. If they didn’t they should give the money back and say they are deeply sorry.
I’ve had clincals at this hospital and although I have no knowledge as to their finances or where what money came from for what renovations.. this is a small hospital and they have expanded the hospital to provide many more beds for sick people.. shoudn’t that be enough? Why does it need your name on it?
If he has a written agreement, it should be enforced. However, in the scheme of things, a half-million dollar contribution toward a $27 million dollar renovation doesn’t seem like much, considering what he’s earned in his career. I’ve seen people in the private sector donate far more money to earn a name on a wing.
That said, I love love love Trisha Yearwood.
What a fat *ss jerk!!!
He is absolutely correct. It wasn’t a General Operating Support (GOS) donation, they probably held a fundraiser for Capital Improvements and solicited him for a donation. It doesn’t seem he dictated what the building needed to house or the type of services it should to offer, but for personally paying for almost 2% of the hospital’s expansion, a simple thing like naming the building after his mom should not have been that hard to do, as they agreed to when they took the money.
It’s not like Brooks wanted his own name on it. Peyton Manning now has Riley’s Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis named after him, and universities regularly auction off the names of dorms and other buildings to the highest bidder.
I can understand why he is heartbroken.
I don’t care if he’s in the right or not, the bottom line is that he’s now suing a hospital. He’s going to be taking money away from them, money that can be used to help people. I think it’s a dick move. He should have tried to negotiate with the hospital, come up with a way for them to still honor his mother, even if it’s not a building. Because I have to believe she’d disapprove of his suing a hospital because of her memory.
I know someone who lives there, and the way the town is acting is ridicules!!! They told him they would name it after her and they didn’t thats just WRONG!!! They should either return the money or rename it! Don’t worry about the sick people i live in OKC and went there and it wasnt to hard to get into! The hospital should do the right thing!
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