SANTA CLARA — The San Francisco 49ers are suing Santa Clara, claiming city leaders “falsely accused” the NFL team of violating its contract — and now the team wants a judge to settle the score by requiring the city to sign documents verifying no breaches occurred.

The lawsuit — filed Friday in Santa Clara County Superior Court — is the latest salvo in an escalating war between the football team and its home city. It’s a blistering feud that has included accusations of lying, withholding records and misusing public funds.

And the 49ers lawsuit has only upped the ante and can make things worse for both sides, according to one expert.

“No one is going to escape with their reputation not tarnished,” said Roger Noll, a Stanford sports economist. “It’s a very strange action from the Niners. Fighting this in court is not a way to enhance their reputation because both sides will always have something nasty to say about the other.”

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Santa Clara Mayor Gillmor threatens 49ers: Cooperate or city will take over stadium The team isn’t asking for monetary damages, according to legal papers. It wants a judge to provide “declaratory relief” — a legal determination about whether the team violated its contract with city leaders and Levi’s Stadium’s management company.

And the Niners want the city to sign estoppel certificates saying they’re in compliance with their agreement — otherwise, the city must articulate the exact breach. That’s the process outlined in the management agreement.

“Defendants have falsely accused (the 49ers management company) of having failed to perform its obligations under the Stadium Management Agreement, despite the absence of any good faith basis for such charges,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also contended that “the Stadium Authority has embarked on a scheme to concoct and fabricate false accusation of breach or nonperformance … to create a pretext for terminating the Stadium Management Agreement.”

A 49ers spokesman declined comment on the suit Monday.

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“Because this is a legal proceeding, we are not going to comment,” said Bob Lange, the team’s vice president of communications. The team has hired the San Francisco-based law firm Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP. Calls to the law firm were not immediately returned Monday.

The dispute began late last year when Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor ordered an audit of stadium finances. The new mayor suspected taxpayer dollars were being spent on the venue in violation of the voter-approved Measure J.

The Niners claim they’ve turned over documents requested by the auditors or invited them to Levi’s Stadium to view them. But Gillmor said the team has refused to cooperate with the probe. She says some documents either didn’t exist or were being withheld by team leaders.

“Our audit right now is stymied because the 49ers are not cooperating with our auditors,” Gillmor said Monday, adding that the lawsuit from the team was expected. “Nothing surprises me at this point. There’s a lot of money involved for them.”

Gillmor last year publicly stated the team has violated its management agreement — by not keeping certain records — and threatened to take over the stadium management. The city issued a letter Nov. 23 describing the “potential breaches” of contract and demanding the documents within 30 days.

Al Guido, the 49ers’ president, has called the mayor’s attacks baseless in previous interviews. The Niners wrote a 10-page response, outlining how the city already has the requested documents or they aren’t public records. They invited Gillmor and auditors to Levi’s to view the private documents.

But after Gillmor publicly claimed City Hall would take over management of Levi’s Stadium, the team asked the city to sign the estoppel certificates showing they’ve provided all documents and haven’t breached the contract.

The city did not sign the certificates — the cornerstone of the lawsuit. The team now wants the judge to interpret its rights under the contract and then order the city to sign the certificates.

“The city did not sign the certificates because we believe they haven’t turned over the documents required by the management agreement,” Gillmor said.

The Niners also claim the city gave it no notice of a contract breach and that it has no grounds to terminate the management contract. Team leaders told this news organization they’ve tried to meet with Gillmor to resolve the issue, but to no avail.

The lawsuit comes just as Santa Clara City Attorney Ren Nosky resigned. The City Council was in a closed-session Monday discussing replacement options for Nosky.