Bernie Madoff's son Andrew must submit to a bankruptcy judge’s decision to permit a $198 million lawsuit to go forward because he sought that court’s protection when he filed a claim against his father’s estate, a federal judge said. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan has declined to hear an appeal of the September decision in favor of Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, in his claim against Madoff family members including Andrew Madoff and the estate of Mark Madoff, who committed suicide in December 2010. Pauley’s written opinion was filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. “Because Mark and Andrew invoked the aid of the bankruptcy court by offering a proof of claim and demanding its allowance, they must abide by the consequences of that procedure,” Pauley said in his Dec. 22 decision, citing a U.S. Supreme Court 1000L  ruling that also described limits to the power of bankruptcy judges. “There is no basis for them to insist that the issue be resolved” by a higher court, Pauley said. Martin  Flumenbaum , a lawyer for Andrew Madoff and Mark Madoff’s estate, said Pauley’s decision to return the case to bankruptcy court “is a procedural issue and has no bearing on the merits of the dispute.”  Picard’s lawsuit is “wholly without merit,” Flumenbaum said in an e-mail yesterday. “Mark and Andrew Madoff had no prior knowledge of Bernard Madoff’s crimes and contacted the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC immediately after their father told them he had defrauded his investment advisory clients.” The case is Picard v. Estate of Mark Madoff, 11-Misc-379, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.  [Bloomberg 12/28/11]