The stage is set for a Madoff trustee Irving Picard to square off against New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, in a trial that begins on 3/19/12 - unless the 2 sides reach a settlement.   The Madoff trustee who's suing the Wilpon and Katz was denied the right to appeal last summer's ruling that tossed out most of his $1 billion claim. The case brought by trustee Irving Picard, part of his global quest to recover billions of dollars lost in the biggest investment fraud in history, originally sought $300 million in profit and $700 million in principal.  The amount was whittled down to about $386 million by Judge Jed Rakoff under his interpretation of the law. Picard accuses Wilpon and Katz, both of whom invested with Bernie Madoff for decades, of having ignored warning signs that the financier was running a Ponzi scheme, which came crashing down in December 2008.  Picard argued that Rakoff's decision last year to reduce the amount of his claims against the Mets owners would have an impact on hundreds of other lawsuits to recover money for victims of the fraud.  Yet, Wilpon and Katz say they weren't aware of Madoff's wrongdoings and, in fact, they themselves were victims of the fraud. In his written decision on Tuesday, Judge Rakoff said Picard could not appeal, saying that the main effect of granting the trustee's motion "would be to materially delay, rather than materially advance, the ultimate termination of the litigation."   The judge added, however, that "the factual record developed at the forthcoming trial of this case will likely have relevance to many of the issues that the Trustee seeks by his motion to put before the Court of Appeals." The case:  Picard v Katz in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-3605. [Reuters, 1/17/12]