'Blind Side' Battle: Michael Oher Calls Tuohys' Latest Financial Claims ‘Contradictory, Confusing, False’
A new petition filed on Tuesday by attorneys for Oher alleges the couple's accounting “fails to include millions of dollars of income”
The legal dispute continues between Michael Oher and his former co-conservators, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
According to new court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Oher, 37, filed an objection Tuesday to the Tuohys' Nov. 8 accounting, which claimed the couple transferred $138,311.01 in ten installments to the former NFL star beginning in 2007 for his rights to The Blind Side.
Oher's objection, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, accuses Sean and Leigh-Anne of "willful failure to fulfill their obligations to the Court" and claims the documents submitted in their accounting filing are "contradictory, confusing, fake in material ways, and wholly inadequate to account for the assets."
The original filing by the Tuohys included tax documents from Alcon Film Fund LLC to Sean in care of the Creative Artists Agency, as well as bank statements and other evidence that show the Tuohys disbursed the money to Oher.
However, Oher's attorneys are petitioning the Court to “strike” the filing and "order" the Tuohys to "produce and file forthwith the complete and honest accounting" of the payments distributed to him.
Related: Michael Oher Then and Now: A Timeline of the NFL Star's Life and Career
Oher's filing argues that the Tuohys failed to “reveal the fact that the former co-conservators arrogated unto themselves the right to divide the money from The Blind Side as they chose, and they unfairly chose to keep 80% for themselves and their two children.”
The petition claims, “Without Mr. Oher, there would have been no movie. The Tuohy had it backwards: 80% of the proceeds should have gone to Petitioner and 20% to the Tuohy family”
Additionally, the filing alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne "made a poor and even foolish deal with Twentieth Century Fox” for Oher’s Name, Image, Likeness (NIL), “without consulting attorneys’ expert in the area," per the court documents.
Oher's petition notes that the Tuohys' court-submitted accounting "fails to account for" earnings from opportunities made possible by Oher's celebrity, such as speaking appearances and published books.
Related: 'Blind Side' Producers Defend the Film, Reveal Actual Profit Made by Tuohys and Michael Oher
In 2010, Sean and Leigh Anne wrote In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving. In 2015, Leigh Anne authored Turn Around: Reach Out, Give Back, and Get Moving.
The new filing by Oher now claims that the Tuohys used Oher's NIL to “capitalize” on his success to fuel sales.
“In a Heartbeat is not only substantially about Mr. Oher’s life and uses his NIL in its promotion, but also includes a chapter supposedly written by Mr. Oher," the filing alleged, asking that "all moneys received from the publication of these books should be paid to" Oher, as well as "interest at the highest lawful rate from the date of their receipt."
The chapter written by Oher in In a Heartbeat is a three-page “interlude" in which the former athlete recounts his difficult childhood and finding the Tuohy family.
Oher wrote, “The Lord kept his hand on me by finding the Tuohy family, and bringing me to them. That was nothing but the man above," in the 2015 publication. Another excerpt from the interlude said, “I always felt part of their family. It was never an awkward feeling…With the Tuohys, it was like I belonged there, and they wanted me there."
Tuesday's filing accuses the Tuohys of “fabricating the phony story that they are the adoptive parents" of Oher and "expounding on this lie while raking in approximately $8 million from gullible audiences around the nation.”
Additionally, the petition asks that Sean account for the $2.5 million he "took from" Oher in 2011. “This $2.5 million was supposedly taken to be invested for Mr. Oher, but the former co-conservators took the $2.5 million without permission from this court," the filing alleges.
According to the petition, the Tuohys opened a checking account at Independent Bank with that money for Oher, with both Sean and Leigh Anne’s names on the account.
The filing alleges that “Leigh Anne Tuohy regularly wrote checks, including to herself and to 'cash,' and “should be required to fully account for every time they spent from that account."
Related: Michael Oher Was Paid $138,000 for The Blind Side, According to Tuohys' Newly Filed Court Documents
Oher's petition alleges that the Tuohy’s accounting “fails to include millions of dollars of income” the family “have received for their misuse of Mr. Oher’s NIL" and called the former co-conservators submission of earnings "grossly inadequate" due to multiple “mathematical errors, ambiguities, and confusing references."
Attorneys for Oher are asking the court to review the Tuohys' accounting submissions and argue that the "intentional and flagrant discrepancies and omissions" from the Tuohys filing "warrants" the court to grant Oher a "prejudgment interest" on all of the property "not properly accounted for" as well as "attorneys fees as result of the former co-conservators failure to provide a full accounting."
Oher signed a conservatorship agreement in 2004 when he was 18 years old that granted the Tuohy’s control of his finances. At the time, he was living with the family and playing high school football.
Oher alleged in his August petition that the Tuohys, including Leigh Anne and Sean’s two children by birth, Collins Tuohy and Sean Tuohy Jr., all made money from the film, which was based on the 2006 book of the same name and centered around the Tuohy family taking Oher in and helping him both in school and in the classroom.
The former Baltimore Ravens player claimed that all four members of the family were paid $225,000 for the film plus 2.5% of the film’s proceeds. He later learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the film, his attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV told ESPN.
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The Tuohys have denied that claim, along with Alcon Entertainment, which produced The Blind Side. In a statement shared with PEOPLE, they said Oher and the four members of the Tuohy family were collectively paid approximately $767,000 in payments delivered through their talent agency for The Blind Side.
In September, Oher’s petition to terminate his conservatorship with the couple was granted.
The 2009 movie made $330 million at the box office and has continued to make money in the years since.
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