Tuohy family to remove references to Michael Oher being adopted in Blind Side legal battle

An attorney for the Memphis couple who took in former NFL player Michael Oher when he was in high school said Wednesday that references to Oher as their adopted son will be removed from the couple’s websites and from speaking materials publicly as part of their legal battle over Oher’s finances. .

Attorney Randy Fishman told a Memphis judge that mentions of Oher’s adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy will be immediately removed from the couple’s public speaking ads and websites.

References to Oher’s adoption had been a key argument made by Oher in his attempts to force the Tuohys to account for the money made from the film The Blind Side, which focuses on Oher’s story and his relationship with the Tuohys. The film won Sandra Bullock an Oscar.

Oher said in a lawsuit in August that the Tuohys misled him into thinking they were adopting him when they entered into a conservatorship agreement with Oher in 2004, when he was 18.

In September, Shelby County Probate Judge Kathleen Gomes ended the conservatorship, allowing the Tuohys to control Oher’s finances. Oher, who had a difficult childhood, signed the agreement while living with the couple, when he was being recruited by colleges as a star football player in high school.

Despite the termination of the conservatorship, the legal battle over the money made from the film and Oher’s story continues. Oher claims the Tuohys used his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves and kept him in the dark about financial transactions related to him and his story. Oher had previously asked that the judge prohibit the Tuohys from using his name, likeness and likeness to make money.

Oher attended Wednesday’s probate court hearing, where Fishman told the judge the Tuohys removed the adoption references. Oher did not speak during the hearing.

Gomes said removing mentions of Oher being adopted by the couple is precisely because he was not adopted.

In Tennessee, a conservatorship takes away a person’s power to make decisions for themselves, and is often used in the case of a medical condition or disability. But Oher’s conservatorship was approved by another judge, “despite the fact that he was over 18 years of age and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities,” according to his petition.

The Tuohys have called the claims that they have enriched themselves at his expense bizarre, hurtful and absurd and part of a ‘shakedown’ of Oher.

In a lawsuit, 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 denied they planned to legally adopt him.

The Tuohys’ filing stated that Oher called them “Mom and Dad,” and occasionally they referred to Oher as a son. They acknowledged that websites show themselves referring to Oher as an adopted son, but the term was only used “in the colloquial sense and it was never intended that that reference would be construed with legal implications.”

In a separate lawsuit, the Tuohys said they received payments from the film’s proceeds from 20th Century Fox and gave Oher a third of the money, which amounted to $138,311. Oher has disputed that filing, arguing that it does not take into account the millions generated from public lectures, and alleging that Sean Tuohy withheld the $2.5 million Oher gave him to invest for him.

No trial date has yet been set in the case,

Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Mississippi, and he spent his first five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, where he won a Super Bowl. He played 110 games over eight NFL seasons, including 2014 when he started 11 games for the Tennessee Titans. Oher finished his career with the Carolina Panthers.