Closing Dealership Didn’t Settle Suit, Nissan Says : Thousand Oaks: Firm calls press release premature. Autos are pulled off Nesen’s Infiniti lot. Loan and payment for cars are at issue.

Hours after the last Infiniti sedan was pulled off the lot of a Thousand Oaks auto dealership, lawyers for Nissan Motor Corp. said Tuesday that dealer Gary Nesen still has not done enough to settle the $5-million lawsuit they filed against his firm last week.

Despite Nesen’s claims that closing the Infiniti lot Monday signaled the end of the legal problems, the Japanese motor company said negotiations continue in the case.

“[Nesen’s] press release is premature and statements regarding the cancellation of the debt are untrue as of this date,” said a company spokeswoman for Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp., the financing arm of the auto maker. “[The lawsuit] remains on file.”

Nissan filed suit Nov. 29 against the Nesen Motor Car Co. Inc.-- Ventura County’s largest auto seller with nine dealerships ranging from Rolls-Royce to Land Rover. The suit alleged that 59 new and used Infinitis are no longer on the Thousand Oaks lot, and the financing company had never been paid for them.

In addition to demanding payment for the 59 cars, valued at $1.2 million, Nissan has asked the dealership to repay $3.8 million, representing the balance of a $4-million loan Nesen used to build the Infiniti lot next to its other outlets on Auto Mall Drive.

Late Monday afternoon, Nesen released a public statement saying that the two parties had agreed upon the closure of the Infiniti dealership at the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall.

As a result of the agreement, the statement said, the lawsuit accusing the car dealer of not paying Nissan would be dropped and the dealership would have no outstanding debt.

“Our relationship with Infiniti has been a good one,” the statement read, “and we wish them well.”

But calling the announcement “not accurate,” Nissan attorney Richard L. Stone said the suit has not been dropped because the Nesen firm has not lived up to the terms of a deal reached Friday to settle the suit.

The deal, according to Stone, involved closing the franchise and erasing part, but not all, of Nesen’s debt.

Stone declined to comment on what terms of the deal had not been met, but said until they are fulfilled, the agreement between the two entities is void.

As negotiations continued Tuesday, corporation President Gary Nesen was unavailable for comment.

Jerry Smith, operations manager for the Nesen firm, said, “We have ongoing discussions with Infiniti and we feel an agreement in a very short period of time.”

But as late as 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, a company spokesman was touting an agreement that has led to the “retraction” of the lawsuit while at the same time attributing the closure of the Infiniti dealership to marketing.

Because the Infiniti models compete for the same customers as Nesen’s Lexus and Cadillac vehicles, the company decided to concentrate on those product lines by dropping the Infiniti line, spokesman John Mooers said.