A Tennessee judge will end former NFL star Michael Oher’s conservatorship agreement with Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy, after he filed a lawsuit claiming he had been misled to believe he had been adopted.
Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes said Friday she’d terminate the agreement between the two parties, whose story inspired the book and Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side."
However, the case has not been dismissed. Neither party spoke during the remote hearing.
The Tuohys took in Oher when he was in high school and he went on to sports stardom playing football for Ole Miss and the NFL.
In a bombshell court filing on Aug. 14, Oher requested a Shelby County judge end the conservatorship that started in 2004 when he was 18.
He claimed he didn’t know he hadn't been adopted, and was instead placed into a conservatorship in which the Tuohys allegedly profited from his name and cut him out of the film’s profits.
The Tuohys, both 63, claimed that they thought of Oher as a son, claimed Oher knew he was in a conservatorship agreement, and denied enriching themselves off his name.
His petition stated that he was entered into the conservatorship despite being over 18 and having no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities, and it allowed the Tuohys to control his contracts.
The Tuohys said they entered the conservatorship to allow Oher to play college football at the University of Mississippi, the Tuohys’ alma mater and where they were boosters. Otherwise his career on the team could have been an issue as Oher lived with them.
The Tuohys, in a response filing, denied having control of his contracts, saying they never signed any contract for him in his career. They further said the profits from "The Blind Side" were split equally.
