NFL
- Tennessee judge ends 2004 conservatorship agreement
- Oher, 37, claims Tuohys used his name to enrich himself
Associated Press
Fri September 29, 2023 6:57 p.m. BST
A Tennessee judge said Friday she is terminating a conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and a Memphis couple who took him in while he was in high school, but the high-profile dispute over financial issues will continue.
Shelby County Probate Judge Kathleen Gomes said she was terminating the 2004 agreement that allowed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to control Oher’s finances. Oher signed the agreement when he was 18 and living with the couple when he was being recruited by colleges as a star high school football player. Her story is the subject of the film “The Blind Side,” which won Sandra Bullock an Oscar.
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Gomes said she would not dismiss the case. Oher demanded that the Tuohys provide a financial accounting of any money that may have accrued to them under the agreement, claiming that they used his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves and lied to him about the agreement meant that the Tuohys would adopt him.
In Tennessee, a conservatorship removes a person’s power to make decisions and is often used in the event of illness or disability.
But Oher’s conservatorship was approved “even though he was over 18 years old and had no diagnosed physical or mental disabilities,” his petition says.
Gomes said she was disturbed that such an agreement ever occurred. She said she had never entered into a conservatorship agreement with anyone who was not disabled in her 43-year career.
“I can’t believe it got done,” she said.
Oher and Tuohys listened via video conference but said nothing. Lawyers for both parties had agreed that the agreement should end, but the case will continue to deal with Oher’s claims. Gomes said it should have ended long ago.
In August, Oher, 37, filed a petition in probate court accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by having him sign papers nearly two decades ago making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents . Oher wanted the conservatorship ended, a full accounting of the money made from his name and history, and payment of what was owed to him, including interest.
He accused the couple of misrepresenting themselves as his adoptive parents and said he discovered in February that the conservatorship agreement agreed to in 2004 was not the agreement he thought it was – and that it did not give him a familial relationship with them.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy stand on a street in New Orleans in 2013. A Tennessee judge said Friday that she is ending a conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and the Tuohys, who took him in when he was in high school. Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP
Oher claims the Tuohys kept him in the dark about financial dealings related to his name, image and likeness throughout the 19-year term of the agreement.
The Tuohys described the allegations that they enriched themselves at his expense as outlandish, hurtful and absurd and part of a “defense” by Oher.
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In a court filing, the wealthy couple said they loved Oher like a son and provided him with food, shelter, clothing and cars while he lived with them, but disputed the statement that they intended to legally adopt him.
The Tuohys’ filing said Oher referred to them as “mother and father” and they occasionally referred to Oher as a son. They admitted that they refer to Oher as an adopted son on websites, but the term was only used “in a colloquial sense and they never intended to consider this reference with legal implications.”
The Tuohys said the conservatorship was the chosen tool to comply with NCAA rules that prevented Oher from attending the University of Mississippi, where Sean Tuohy was a standout basketball player.
“When it became clear that plaintiff could not consider attending the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”) because he lived with defendants, the NCAA made clear that he could attend Ole Miss if he attended the Tuohy is “In a way it’s a family,” the Tuohys’ Sept. 14 court filing said.
The Tuohys also said Oher lied when he found out he wasn’t adopted in February. They said Oher’s 2011 book “I Beat the Odds” suggests he was fully aware that the Tuohys were being appointed conservators.
Agents negotiated a small advance for the Tuohys from the production company for “The Blind Side,” based on a book by Sean Tuohy’s friend Michael Lewis, the couple’s lawyers said. That included “a tiny percentage of net profits” divided equally among a group that included Oher, they said.
The lawyers said they estimated Tuohys and Oher each received $100,000, and the couple paid taxes on Oher’s share for him.
The Tuohys’ filing said they never signed Oher to a professional football contract and that he was happy with The Blind Side’s financial arrangements.
Oher was the 23rd pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi and spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, where he won a Super Bowl. He played in 110 games in eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher finished his career with the Carolina Panthers.
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