According to a court document filed on Monday, former NFL great Michael Oher, who was the subject of the book and movie "The Blind Side," claims that the couple who took him in as a teenager tricked him into thinking they were adopting him and actually put him in a conservatorship.
"The lie of Michael's adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher," said the petition to end the conservatorship filed in Shelby County Court in Tennessee.
The Oscar-winning movie "The Blind Side," which starred Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, was based on the life of Oher and the Tuohy family. Based on the Michael Lewis book, the movierecounted Oher's life from his early years as a destitute boy through his college football career and eventual NFL glory in the same-titled book.
According to the petition, the Tuohy family negotiated an agreement with 20th Century Fox that gave the Tuohy family a contract price of $225,000 in addition to 2.5% of the film's net receipts while Oher received no compensation for the rights to his name, likeness, and life story.
The petition claims that the movie has made more than $300 million. The nonprofit foundation of Leigh Anne Tuohy also received a $200,000 gift.
The petition claimed that Oher received no financial benefit from the movie, which was released after he finished his college career and had no bearing on his NCAA eligibility.
Oher asserts that she does not remember signing the petition.the arrangement for his life story's rights. Even though the document appears to bear his signature, "nobody ever presented this document to him with any explanation," according to the complaint.
In response, he filed a petition charging the Tuohys with a fiduciary responsibility violation that was "so gross and appalling that they should be sanctioned by this court."
The complaint claims that Oher was homeless as a youngster and a ward of the state of Tennessee by the time he was 11 years old. In 2002, Oher played football and basketball at Briarcrest Christian School thanks to the assistance of a friend's father.
The petition claimed that Oher's classmate's families frequently allowed Oher, who allegedly slipped through the cracks of a "broken social system," to remain in their homes.
"Whereas other parents of Michael's classmates simply saw Michael as a nice kid in need, Conservators Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy saw something else: A gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit," the petition stated.
Oher claims that the Tuohys offered him a place to reside with their family in their home the summer before his senior year, following his legal adulthood in July 2004. The petition claimed that Oher believed the pair when they told they would adopt him legally.
Oher didn't discover until February that the forms the Tuohys had requested him to sign, which he had thought were a part of the "adoption process," were actually conservatorship papers that would revoke his legal rights.
According to the suit, the Tuohys allegedly informed him that the adoption paperwork was actually termed a conservatorship because he was no longer a juvenile.
The petition claimed that because the Tuohys never made it clear to Michael that they would have final say over all of his contracts, "Michael did not understand that, if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself."
The conservatorship was given until Oher turned 25 or the court revoked the order, but the arrangement was never done away with, according to Oher's petition.
Oher's petition asks the court to order an injunction prohibiting the Tuohys from exploiting his name and likeness in addition to termination.
On Monday, Sean Tuohy did not answer his phone right away. The Tuohys' legal counsel declined to comment.
According to Tuohy's former Creative Artists Agency agents, they haven't dealt with the family since 2007.
SJ, the son of Sean Tuohy, told Barstool Sports about the petition and shared his opinion that Oher's problems with the Tuohy family developed gradually. He claimed that around 2021, Oher asked the family for money.
He further stated that he would never disparage Oher.
SJ Tuohy remarked, "I understand why he's angry. "It stinks that it will play out on the public stage ... that part sucks, but oh well.”
SJ Tuohy added that although he was unaware of the specifics of the movie contract, he was aware that his father had given him a check a few years after the film's release. He continued, "I don't know why my parents decided against adoption and went with a conservatorship, but I assume it was because of Oher's age."
"Nothing like money is being held anywhere, and no power of attorney is still being held," he declared. I was somewhat accusatory toward my parents since I didn't want to appear to be siding with the wrong party.
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