Michael Oher received $100,000 profits from The Blind Side like every other member of his 'adopted' family, Tuohys claim in filings seeking to end their conservatorship of ex-NFL star
By Joe Hutchison For Dailymail.Com
18:06 17 Aug 2023, updated 06:56 18 Aug 2023
NFL Star Michael Oher received $100,000 in profits from 'The Blind Side' like every other member of his adopted family, lawyers for the Tuohy family have said.
Attorneys Randy Fishman and Steven Farese Sr. addressed media on Wednesday, claiming 'a pretty simple [accounting] process' would debunk Oher's claims.
The lawyers said that he had been paid $100,000 as an advance from the production company for 'The Blind Side', with the Tuohys receiving the same amount.
The new claim comes after Oher, 37, alleged that he was tricked into signing a document which made the Tuohy's his conservators - not his adoptive parents - allowing them to profit off his name.
The retired athlete alleged that the entire movie, starring Sandra Bullock, is based on a lie, shocking fans with claims he is not actually the adopted son of Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy as the movie portrays.
On Wednesday, Fishman said: 'Michael got every dime, every dime he had coming.'
Farese added: 'They don´t need his money. They´ve never needed his money. Mr. Tuohy sold his company for $220 million.'
Martin Singer, an attorney for the Tuohys, said that profit participation checks and studio accounting statements support their assertions.
When Oher refused to cash the checks the Tuohys deposited Oher´s share into a trust account, according to a statement.
In 2004, 18-years-old Oher signed on to a petition that made them his conservators, meaning they were able to legally act upon business interests in his name.
Oher alleges in the suit that the conservatorship enabled the Tuohy family to strike a deal wherein they - inclusive of their two children - would receive royalties from the heartwarming movie, specifically $225,000 each in addition to 2.5 percent of the 'defined net proceeds.'
Oher claimed he did not receive one cent from the motion picture which detailed his story of triumph from homelessness to draft pick - nor, a separate deal that signed over rights to his life's rights to 20th Century FOX.
Oher's supposed adoptive parents, who were popularized by the acclaimed 2009 film, have responded to his filing of a legal petition against the family.
Sean Tuohy responded to Oher's allegations saying the family were 'devastated' by the allegations, adding: 'We are going to keep loving Michael,' according to the Daily Memphian.
ESPN was first to report that Oher filed a 14-page petition in Shelby County, Tennessee Monday alleging the centrality of the movie was a lie and the Tuohy family used him as a means of acquiring further wealth.
After filing a petition on Monday in a Tennessee probate court, Oher wants a full accounting of assets considering his life story produced millions of dollars.
The lawyers for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy said the couple now want to end the conservatorship that Oher is challenging in court.
The two intend to enter into a consent order to end the conservatorship, despite the Tuohys' attorneys saying Oher knew very well that he had not been adopted.
Their lawyer Randall Fishman also pointed towards Oher's first book and that he mentioned the Tuohys being conservators for him three times. The couple's attorneys also said that the Tuohys and Oher have been estranged for about a decade.
Steve Farese, also their lawyer, said Oher has become 'more and more vocal and more and more threatening' over the past decade or so, and this is 'devastating for the family'.
The Tuohys have called the allegations a ridiculous shakedown attempt, and 'a court of law is no place to play', Mr Fishman said.
In a statement released by their lawyers on Tuesday, the Tuohys said Oher had threatened before the court filing to plant a negative news story about them unless they paid him 15 million dollars.
Oher previously wrote about his conservatorship in his 2011 memoir 'I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond', Oher wrote: 'Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators'.'
'There was one major event that happened right after I graduated high school: I became a legal member of the Tuohy family,' Oher wrote in the memoir.
'It kind of felt like a formality, as I'd been a part of the family for more than a year at that point. Since I was already over the age of eighteen and considered an adult by the state of Tennessee, Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my 'legal conservators.'
'They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account.
'Honestly, I didn't care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real: We were a family.'
The former football star even wrote how the Tuohys had brought his biological mother to the court hearing where she gave her consent over the the agreement.
'My mother was going to be at the hearing to agree that she supported the decision to have the Tuohys listed as my next of kin and legal conservators.
'My mother was supportive of the whole thing and there wasn't a whole lot of emotion all around because it was just a matter of formalizing the way we'd been living for the past year.'
'After court, we all went out to brunch together to celebrate. Then we dropped my mother off and went back to the house – to our house.'
Comments