January 25, 2012; Source: Albany Times Union | NPQ has been following the lawsuit of country singer Garth Brooks, who made a half-million dollar donation to the Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital of Yukon, Okla. in 2005. Brooks won the suit against the hospital on Tuesday.

Brooks alleged that the hospital had promised to name a new women’s center after his mother Colleen and then had failed to do so. The women’s center was never built and apparently Brooks felt he had been lured into the gift.

The jury not only ordered the original grant returned, but also found that the hospital should pay punitive damages equal to the grant, bringing the total award to $1 million.

Awarded to the hospital? Probably a long-lasting bad taste in the mouth of other potential donors. –Ruth McCambridge