Garth Brooks wants his $500k hospital donation back. Justifiable or sour grapes?

That is legally justifiable. A business deal is a business deal. If you donate money to anyone with the agreement being "only if you do this for me" and you don't do it, then that is breach of contract no matter how you slice it.

In this case, I don't find it petty or greedy since he was looking for a way to honor his mother and this sounds less like a donation and more like a business agreement to give his mother a lasting memory.

Honestly, what does the hospital have against naming the buildings after his mother? That sounds like a small price to pay to pick up a half million in cash.

I agree. It seems like he donated the money based on what the hospital promised him and then they backed out of the agreement. Sucks for Garth Brooks--like you said, it's not a big deal to name a building after his mom.

i agree that it IS legally justifiable..but donating money for any other purpose then to help an organization..even if it is so that they name a couple of buildings after you're mother...is selfish. its like,,,donating a dollar or so at mcdonalds just so people can see you're name on the wall. that's not what donation should be about. it should be about helping out, not being recognized for you're good deeds.

besides....the guys a damn millionaire. go donate to another hospital..maybe they will self serve you.

Millionaire or not, if you give money to an organization with a stipulation attached to it that they agree to accommodate, and then they refuse to do it, you have every right to demand your money back. They failed to follow through on their agreement.

Elvis Presley went through this with his own home town. In fact, it was because of that incident that he disowned Tupelo. He donated a boat load of money for Tupelo to improve one of their city parks. His only stipulation was that they had to take part of the money and specifically build a guitar shaped swimming pool.

The city built the pool, but refused to make it into a guitar shape. Elvis got angry over this because that was his one specific demand was to make it guitar shaped. As a result of what he saw as them taking his money and then not following through on their end of the bargain, Elvis refused to ever acknowledge Tupelo again. Even when he lived in Memphis, when asked he would say he was from Tupelo. After this incident, however, he would say he was from Memphis.

And on a side note, $500,000 is not chump change to anyone, including millionaires. If they are going to put down half a million on anything, they expect their money to be used for the purpose that was agreed to.

I think he deserves to have the money back! I agree that a half a mill is a lot of money and he should be able to decide what happens with it.

- Jenny