Southern District Judge Jed S. Rakoff has agreed to take certain issues out of bankruptcy court and hear those issues himself in the battle between the owners of the New York Mets and Baker & Hostetler partner Irving Picard, the liquidation trustee for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.

Among those issues: whether the Mets’ owners had a duty to inquire into Madoff’s investments if they saw red flags indicating suspicious activity.