Michael Oher's conservatorship officially terminated: Here's the latest in 'Blind Side' case
During Friday's hearing, a judge said she was disturbed the athlete was ever put in a conservatorship.
Michael Oher's conservatorship was terminated as his case against the Tuohy family goes forward. On Friday, a Tennessee judge ended the legal agreement, which was established in 2004, that gave the Tuohys control over Oher's finances. The judge reportedly said she was disturbed that the conservatorship was ever established.
"I cannot believe it got done," Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes said. According to the Associated Press, she said that in her 43-career, she had never seen a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who was not disabled.
Oher filed a lawsuit against the Tuohys in August. The former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman claimed he believed he was signing adoption papers, not a conservatorship agreement when he was 18 years old. The Tuohys took in the football star when he was in high school. Their story was inspiration for the 2009 film The Blind Side, which earned Sandra Bullock an Oscar.
During Friday's court hearing, Gomes said she was not dismissing the case. A lawyer for the Tuohys did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment. However, the Tuohys previously said they did not object to the conservatorship ending.
Here's a timeline of what has happened.
Aug. 14
Oher filed a lawsuit claiming his "adoptive" parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, tricked him into signing a conservatorship agreement. He wants the family to stop using his name and likeness, which he claims they've done to enrich themselves. For example, he alleged the family — including Sean and Leigh Anne's two biological children — have profited off royalties from The Blind Side, which grossed over $300 million, while he has not seen his fair share of money.
"I am disheartened by the revelation shared in the lawsuit today. This is a difficult situation for my family and me," a spokesperson for Oher told Yahoo in a statement. "I want to ask everyone to please respect our privacy at this time. For now, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself and will offer no further comment."
Sean spoke to the Daily Memphian, and while he admitted to having Oher sign conservatorship papers, claimed it was done to prevent possible trouble with the NCAA.
"Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn't like that," he said. "They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. I sat Michael down and told him, 'If you're planning to go to Ole Miss — or even considering Ole Miss — we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that, legally.' We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn't adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court."
Tennessee allows for adult adoption over the age of 18.
Aug. 15
The Tuohys hired powerhouse attorney, Marty Singer, as the case garnered national headlines. In a statement, Singer accused Oher of trying to extort the Tuohys for $15 million before taking the allegations to the press.
"Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher's equal share into a trust account they set up for his son," Singer claimed.
Oher's lawyer released the following statement to Yahoo in response: "We try cases in the courtroom based on the facts. We have confidence in our judicial system and in our client Michael Oher. We believe that justice will be served in the courtroom, and we hope to get there quickly."
Meanwhile, legal experts told Yahoo the case is "troubling."
"This case appears to be one of the most troubling episodes of abuse of conservatorship I can recall," attorney Harry Nelson, founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman, shared. "Michael Oher is a successful person, a father, a husband, engaged in many projects, and not a person who by any stretch of the imagination is appropriate for conservatorship."
Aug. 16
Lawyers for the Tuohys alleged that Oher always knew he wasn't legally adopted as he mentioned it in his 2011 memoir, I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond.
"This lawsuit, this petition, was built around an alleged fact that Mr. Oher did not know that he was not the adoptive son, but rather there was a conservatorship," one of the Tuohy family attorney's, Randall Fishman, told local media. "He alleges he just found that out in February of 2023. Fact of the matter is, he wrote a book in 2011. In 2011, he acknowledged in that book on three separate occasions in that book, that there was in fact a conservatorship."
Here is what Oher wrote in the book, according to Today:
It kind of felt like a formality, as I’d been a part of the family for more than a year at that point. Since I was already over the age of eighteen and considered an adult by the state of Tennessee, Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators.' They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account. Honestly, I didn't care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real: We were a family.
Aug. 21
In a new filling, Oher requested a full accounting of any money earned off his name, likeness and story by the Tuohys for the last 19 years.
"Co-Conservators have failed to file the first accounting [within seven months of their 2004 appointment] and have failed to timely file a single accounting for the last 19 years. The Court never granted an extension of time for doing so," the motion said, according to the Los Angeles Times, as Oher's attorneys accused the Tuohys of a "failure to uphold their fiduciary duty" to do so.
Oher "was excluded from knowing the full extent of any contracts negotiated on his behalf by his Co-Conservators," per court documents, like the 2006 contract negotiated with what the studio to adapt Michael Lewis's book The Blind Side: The Evolution of the Game.
Aug. 24
The producers of The Blind Side spoke out for the first time and detailed payouts the Tuohys and Oher received for the 2009 movie. Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment, denied that the Tuohys were paid millions for the film.
According to documents obtained by NBC News, Alcon paid "$767,000 to the talent agency that represents the Tuohy family and Michael Oher (who, presumably, took commission before passing it through)." A source claimed to the outlet the Tuohys received about $700,000 to be evenly split among the family.
Sept. 14
In their own legal filing, the Tuohys "vehemently denied" enriching themselves at Oher's expense. They claimed Oher never asked to terminate the conservatorship and "they have always acted in the best interest" of Oher. The Tuohys alleged proceeds from The Blind Side were divided evenly among themselves, their two children and Oher.
"All of the Tuohy family including the petitioner agreed to this arrangement, where each party would get 20% of proceeds paid," the response stated. The Tuohys said they received a portion of the $225,000 paid to Lewis.
"There was never an intent to adopt him," they admit in the documents; however, they claimed it's "demonstrably false" that Oher only found out in February 2023 that he wasn't adopted, per Oher's 2011 memoir.
Sept. 29
During Friday's court hearing, Oher's conservatorship was officially terminated. Oher and the Tuohys listened in by video conference call, according to reports, but did not speak.
