Former NFL first-round draft pick Michael Oher is free from his conservatorship with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
Shelby County (Tenn.) Judge Kathleen Gomes “terminated” the conservatorship on Friday, according to WREG in Memphis.
Oher, the former Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle, sued the Tuohy family last month, alleging they swindled him out of proceeds from the blockbuster film “The Blind Side” and said he just learned earlier this year he was under a conservatorship as opposed to having been adopted.
“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,” Oher’s suit said, per ESPN.
“Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”
Oher had previously written in his 2011 memoir that he knew the Tuohys were his conservators.
An attorney for the Tuohys said last month they would end the conservatorship.
“There was never an intent to adopt him,” the Tuohy family said in a legal filing earlier this month.
The filing said that they referred to Oher as their son “in the colloquial sense and they have never intended that reference to be viewed with legal implication.”
“In fact, they have always felt that the Petitioner was like a son and have used that on occasion but not in a legal sense,” the filing continued.
The Tuohys also said in the legal filing that Oher received an equal one-fifth cut of the proceeds from “The Blind Side,” getting the same amount as Sean, Leigh Anne and their two biological children.
Sean Tuohy told the Daily Memphian the 2004 conservatorship was drawn up merely to ensure Oher would be able to play college football, and that he was able to leave it whenever he wanted.
Oher played left tackle at Ole Miss, which was the alma mater of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
A first-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, Oher had an eight-year NFL career with the Ravens, Titans and Panthers.