WASHINGTON - Chrysler Group says it reached a settlement last week that blocks a North Carolina law aimed at making it easier for rejected dealerships to win reinstatement and will continue cases over similar laws in Illinois, Oregon and Maine, Automotive News reported.

The North Carolina law, passed in August, gave closed dealerships the right of first refusal on any new franchise that was to be awarded in the store's former market. Exceptions were to be granted if Chrysler paid the dealerships for the value of their franchises or demonstrated that they were unfit to be dealers.

Chrysler said that North Carolina authorities agreed on April 15 not to enforce the state law and that the settlement was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on the same day.

“Chrysler Group not only employed sound business judgment in restructuring its dealer network but is acting in the greater public interest by protecting the dealer network that was created during bankruptcy,” the company said in a statement.

The 13 Chrysler dealerships in North Carolina that were closed last June as part of the company's bankruptcy restructuring can try to win reinstatement through arbitration, the company said.

A North Carolina Department of Transportation spokeswoman declined comment.

In December, Chrysler asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to declare that new laws in Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Maine “are in conflict with and therefore are pre-empted by” the federal bankruptcy code.

The company said today it will continue to try to block implementation of the laws in Illinois, Oregon and Maine.

Those three states have a total of 56 closed Chrysler dealerships, the company said.

A fifth state, Colorado, enacted a law last month that requires automakers to reinstate rejected dealerships or compensate them if the store wasn't offered the franchise back before it was awarded to another dealership in the same market.

The company declined to say whether it would sue to block the Colorado law.

“We oppose the Colorado legislation and continue to consider our options,” Chrysler said today.

Chrysler closed 789, or a quarter, of its dealerships as part of its bankruptcy last year. About half the closed stores have sought reinstatement through arbitration under a new federal law enacted in December.

The company has offered reinstatement outside the arbitration framework to about 50 of the shuttered dealerships.