In a surprising turn of events, Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes announced on Friday that she is terminating the conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and the Tuohy family.
The agreement, which was reached in 2004, allowed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to control Oher's finances. Oher, who gained fame as the subject of the book and film "The Blind Side," had been living with the Tuohys since he was in high school.
Judge Gomes expressed her disbelief that such an agreement was ever reached, stating, "I cannot believe it got done." She further added that in her 43-year career, she had never seen a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who was not disabled. While the judge is terminating the agreement, she made it clear that she is not dismissing the case.
Oher, now 37, recently filed a petition in his native Tennessee to terminate the conservatorship, claiming that the Tuohys used his name, image, and likeness to enrich themselves and lied to him about the nature of the agreement. He has requested a financial accounting of any money that may have come to the Tuohys as part of the agreement. Oher also alleges that the conservatorship denied him film royalties.
The conservatorship agreement, which was initially portrayed as an adoption, became the focus of public attention after the release of "The Blind Side." Oher's attorneys argue that he only discovered the existence of the conservatorship in February of this year, despite referring to Sean and Leigh Anne as his "legal conservators" in his 2011 memoir, "I Beat The Odds." The Tuohy family, on the other hand, continued to portray themselves as Oher's adoptive parents.
Tennessee attorney Timothy Street has stated that Oher could have asked a judge to terminate the conservatorship at any point, although it remains unclear when Oher truly understood the arrangement he agreed to as an 18-year-old in 2004. Street believes that if Oher had enough financial savvy to sign a multi-million dollar contract with the NFL, he should have had enough savvy to know whether or not he wanted to remain in a conservatorship.
Oher's attorneys argue that the Tuohys did not inform him that they would have ultimate control over all his contracts and that he did not understand the implications of the conservatorship. They claim that the Tuohys falsely advised Oher that the legal action to adopt him had to be called a conservatorship, but it was, in reality, an adoption.
In response to Oher's legal filing, the Tuohy family's attorney has claimed that Oher tried to pressure them into paying him $15 million prior to the filing. The attorney also stated that Oher could have ended the conservatorship years earlier if he had wanted to.
As the case continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how the financial accounting requested by Oher will impact the outcome. The termination of the conservatorship agreement marks a significant development in Oher's ongoing legal battle with the Tuohy family.
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