Judge Kathleen Gomes, a Tennessee judge, said she was disturbed such an agreement between Michael Oher and the Tuohy's was ever reached. She said she had never seen in her 43-year career a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who was not disabled: "I cannot believe it got done"
Friday 29 September 2023 17:43, UK
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 as he was being recruited by colleges as a star high school football player.
Gomes said she was not dismissing the case. Oher has asked that the Tuohys provide a financial accounting of money that may have come to them as part of the agreement, claiming that they used his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves and lied to him that the agreement meant the Tuohys were adopting him.
Gomes said she was disturbed that such an agreement was ever reached. She said she had never seen in her 43-year career a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who was not disabled.
"I cannot believe it got done," she said.
Oher and Tuohys listened in by video conference call but did not speak.
Oher had claimed he unknowingly signed a contract that signed away 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 dramatised how the Tuohys took in Oher when he was a homeless teenager and helped him flourish. The film was also nominated for best picture at the 2010 awards.
The 37-year-old Oher filed a petition accusing the Tuohys of lying to him when he signed papers making them his conservators - which he thought would also make them his adoptive parents.
Oher played eight seasons in the NFL after being drafted in 2009 by the Baltimore Ravens, winning 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 made more than $300m (£236m) worldwide, according to the Internet Movie Database.
