Vestron Suit Settled for $100 Million : Entertainment: A hot property in the 1980s, the company said it was stymied when Security Pacific Bank pulled its line of credit.

Vindicating Austin O. Furst, the 1980s Hollywood entrepreneur who saw his fast-growing movie and home video company collapse in bankruptcy, Inovision Inc. has been awarded $100 million in the out-of-court settlement of a 4-year old lawsuit against Security Pacific National Bank.

The settlement, stemming from an alleged breach of contract over a promised loan, is believed to be one of the largest of its kind.

Inovision’s predecessor company, Vestron Inc., sued Security Pacific in 1989, claiming that the bank’s withdrawal of a $100-million credit line had pushed the entertainment company into financial turmoil. The bank subsequently merged with Bank of America, which entered into the settlement with Inovision.

Started in 1981 by Furst, a former HBO executive, Vestron was one of the hottest independent entertainment companies in the 1980s. It produced such hit films as “Dirty Dancing,” and at its peak had over 600 employees and annual revenue of about $350 million.

But all that came crashing down shortly after Security Pacific yanked the credit line that the Stamford, Conn., firm had earmarked for an aggressive expansion.

In its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Vestron charged that its problems were compounded by Security Pacific’s “false claim” that the firm had suffered an adverse financial change between August and October, 1988.

Attempts to replace the credit line were unsuccessful, and Vestron had to agree to a “prepackaged” bankruptcy in which its assets were sold off to satisfy creditors.

Vestron then changed its name to Inovision Corp.

“Our mission now must be to determine how best to use this asset for the benefit of Inovision shareholders,” Furst said Friday. Inovision has 37,500,000 shares outstanding, of which 5,500,000 shares are owned by the public and traded over-the-counter.

Bank of America said that the settlement will have no impact on the corporation’s financial condition or operations, since reserves had previously been set aside to cover it.