Opinion ID: 70731
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Proceeds of Settlements

Text: 61 Although the bankruptcy court did not make findings of fact concerning the amount of settlements it may have received from parties alleged by the trustee to be jointly and severally liable with the appellants, the appellants state that the court received at least $4,845,650.08 in such settlements. According to the appellants, the bankruptcy court applied only $2,140,751.38 from these alleged settlements to reduce the appellants' liability; apparently, the court applied the remaining $2,704,898.70 to cover certain administrative expenses of the Limited Partnerships' bankruptcies. See In re The Securities Group 1980, 124 B.R. at 889 & n. 26. The appellants contend that the bankruptcy court's treatment violates New York General Obligations Law Sec. 15-103 (McKinney 1989) (stating that any consideration received by a creditor in settlement of a debt discharges, to the extent of the amount received, the liability of all other persons jointly liable to the creditor for the loss). The appellants' argument is vague. After considerable effort to decipher the appellants' meaning, we believe they are attempting to make the following argument: that the extent of the total liability (for additional contributions) of all former limited partners is the amount of the obligations to creditors as of the Withdrawal Date, and that any amounts collected by the trustee from other former limited partners would reduce the total amount for which the appellants are liable. The appellants apparently deduce from the foregoing that they should be responsible for no administrative expenses. Not only do the appellants fail to articulate the foregoing proposition clearly, they cite no authority for the proposition, and we do not find it intuitively obvious. Neither the bankruptcy court nor the district court addressed such an argument. 12 To the extent that the foregoing is the argument which the appellants intend to assert, we conclude that their lack of clarity and lack of support in their initial brief is sufficient to warrant our refusal to entertain the argument. We deem the argument abandoned. See Beckwith v. City of Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., 58 F.3d 1554, 1561 n. 11 (11th Cir.1995) (Generally, issues not clearly raised in the briefs are considered abandoned.). 13 62