By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Emboldened by a favorable court ruling, JPMorgan Chase & Co
The requests came after U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, in a case against HSBC Holdings Plc
JPMorgan was sued by Picard for $19.9 billion, and UBS for $2 billion. Their cases are among the largest of the roughly 1,050 lawsuits seeking more than $103 billion that Picard has filed since Madoff's firm collapsed on December 11, 2008.
Many defendants have challenged Picard's authority to sue, or claimed that they are victims and should not pay anything.
JPMorgan and UBS asked U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, who handles their cases and sits on the same court as Rakoff, to accept her colleague's conclusion that Picard lacks standing to claim they violated duties to Madoff customers by failing to stop the fraud.
The JPMorgan lawsuit is "an illegitimate attempt by the trustee to usurp and assert thousands of state law securities claims that belong not to BLMIS but exclusively to its customers," that bank said in a Monday evening court filing.
UBS in a separate filing endorsed JPMorgan's arguments, saying Rakoff's decision should apply to Picard's "nearly identical common law claims" against other banks.
JPMorgan also asked McMahon to throw out 12 of Picard's bankruptcy claims, as well as eight common law claims.
Rakoff's decision took away $8.6 billion of claims against HSBC, Italy's UniCredit SpA
A spokeswoman for Picard did not immediately return requests on Tuesday for comment.
"IMPLAUSIBLE" CLAIM, BANK SAYS
The bulk of Picard's cases are "clawback" lawsuits against former Madoff customers who Picard believes took too much cash out of the firm before its collapse.
In contrast, the lawsuits against JPMorgan, UBS, HSBC, UniCredit and "feeder funds" that steered client money to Madoff accuse the defendants of ignoring red flags of Madoff's fraud, often to win more fees or commissions.
Such claims are part of Picard's lawsuits against JPMorgan and UBS, and both banks have forcefully rejected them.
In its filing, JPMorgan said Picard failed to show anyone at the bank had "actual knowledge" of Madoff's crimes, or "substantiate his utterly implausible theory that JPMorgan deliberately collaborated with Madoff in perpetuating a Ponzi scheme in order to earn routine banking fees."
The trustee has said he has recovered $8.6 billion to cover roughly $17.3 billion of valid customer claims. Madoff, 73, is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
The cases are Picard v. JPMorgan Chase & Co et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-00913; and Picard v. UBS et al in the same court, No. 11-04212.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Dave Zimmerman)