Judge Kathleen Gomes, a judge from Tennessee, said she was disturbed that an agreement was ever reached between Michael Oher and the Tuohys. She said she had never seen a conservatorship deal with someone who wasn’t disabled in her 43-year career: “I can’t believe it worked out”
Last updated: 09/29/23 5:43 PM
A Tennessee judge has terminated the conservatorship agreement between Michael Oher and the Tuohy family
A Tennessee judge said Friday she is ending a conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and a Memphis couple who took him in when he was in high school.
Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes said she is terminating the agreement reached in 2004 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 recruited by colleges as a star football player in high school.
Gomes said she is not dismissing the case. Oher has asked the Tuohys to provide a financial accounting of the money that may have come to them as part of the deal, claiming they used his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves and lied to him that the deal meant the Tuohys adopted him. .
Gomes said she was disturbed that such an agreement was ever reached. She said that in her 43-year career, she had never seen a conservatorship agreement with someone who was not disabled.
“I can’t believe it worked,” she said.
Oher and Tuohys listened in via video conference call, but said nothing.
Sandra Bullock and Leigh Anne Tuohy pictured at the 2010 Oscars, where Bullock won Best Actress for her portrayal of Tuohy in The Blind Side
Oher had claimed that he had unknowingly signed a contract granting him the rights to his life story depicted in the film The blind side.
Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in the film, which dramatized how the Tuohys took Oher in when he was a homeless teenager and helped him thrive. The film was also nominated for best film at the 2010 awards.
Oher, 37, filed a petition accusing the Tuohys of lying to him when he signed papers making them his conservators — who he believed would also become his adoptive parents.
Oher played eight seasons in the NFL after being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 and won a Super Bowl with the team in his fourth season. Oher also had stints with the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers before his career ended in 2017.
The blind side According to the Internet Movie Database, he earned more than $300 million (£236 million) worldwide.