Blind Sided
On the first day of class each year, I tell my contracts students about the blog. They may or may not think that they are interested in contracts law, but I think it is good to introduce them to the idea that the whole of existence can be considered through the lens of contracts law, which is what we do here.
I protested that I sat out the whole Britney Spears thing, and as a result, I know nothing about conservatorships. Sydney was unfazed and insistent. The world needs to read the contracts angle on all of this, she scolded. Well here goes.
According to Claudia Rosenbaum writing in Vulture, Mr. Oher was not adopted by the Tuohy family as he and millions of movie-goers believed. Rather the Tuohy’s set up a conservatorship that provided, among other things, that Mr. Oher could not enter into any contracts without their direct approval.
Mr. Oher claims that he was told that the conservatorship was the legal equivalent to an adoption. Adoption itself was not an option, he was told (falsely, according to the article), as Mr. Oher was over 18 at the time the conservatorship was established. No conservatorship was necessary, he now claims, as he suffered from no disability, and he claims that the conservatorship cost him millions of dollars. He wants the conservatorship to be ended, and he seeks an accounting. The Tuohys were paid $225,000 each (it’s not clear if that is for husband and wife alone or also for their two children) plus 2.25% of profits on the movie The Blind Side, which grossed over $300 million.
They respond to this suit by a man they “love as a son” by calling it “hurtful and absurd.” They are absurdly rich. So rich, apparently, that their attorney thinks that hundreds of thousands in up-front payments from a movie studio plus perhaps millions in post-production profits amount to “a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments.” It’s easy to lose track of one’s spare millions when you are just throwing them on the pile. They characterize his lawsuit as “ludicrous” and dismiss it as an attempt to drum up interest in his new book. Gosh, they are so loving! Imagine what they would say about him if they had actually adopted him.
Mind you, there is a lot going on here that doesn’t add up. It seems odd that Mr. Oher has gotten this far in life without noticing that the Tuohys were necessary parties to his multiple contracts over the years. At no point did his agent tell advise him that he didn’t need the Tuohys around? Does he need to check with them before he signed with multiple NFL teams? Closed on a house? Agreed through clickwrap to a website’s Terms of Service? Bought a car?
With both parties here are well-resourced, one hopes that this case will be quickly resolved through mediation. Otherwise both sides might be blindsided and made worse off by attorneys fees.