Garth Brooks
has won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against an Oklahoma
hospital that failed to construct a women's health center in honor of his mother, Coleen Brooks, who died of cancer in 1999.
Jurors ruled that Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon, Okla., must pay the singer $1 million -- returning
a $500,000 donation Brooks made to the hospital to name the center after his mother and an additional $500,000 in punitive
damages. Testifying during the trial in Claremore, Okla., Brooks said he understood that he and hospital president James Moore
reached a deal in 2005. He filed the lawsuit in 2009 after the hospital failed to construct the women's center. "This case
is about promises -- promises made and promises broken," Brooks' attorney, John Hickey, told jurors. "Mr. Brooks kept his
promise. Integris never intended to keep their promise and never built a new women's center." Following the judgment late
Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 24), Integris spokesman Hardy Watkins told reporters, "Obviously, we are disappointed, particularly
with the jury's decision to award damages above and beyond the $500,000. We're just glad to see the case come to a resolution."
