Randall Corporation owes Pizza Kitchens co-owner Mark Kassis more than $64,000 in damages for allowing runoff to enter the restaurant at 120 Hayward Ave., according to the ruling in a case involving the two companies last week.

After four days in the Story County District Court, the jury found Randall Corporation, 303 Welch Ave., and owner Scott Randall acted negligently and created a nuisance.

The jury awarded Pizza Kitchens about 8 percent of the $760,000 sought in compensation for damage to the building, lost business, lost rent for some office space in the building and loss in the building’s value.

Pizza Kitchens’ Attorney Ron Sotak said he was pleased with the verdict.

“I’m happy for my clients. This has been a long ordeal and hard for them to endure,” he said.

One witness testified to observing a red dye experiment, Sotak said. A Pizza Kitchens employee dumped red dye into the Randall Corporation lot and watched as it flowed into the restaurant, he said.

Sotak said the dispute began five years ago when Randall Corporation constructed a chain-link fence on what surveyors deemed Pizza Kitchens’ property.

He said Randall refused to move the fence. Randall was charged with trespassing, but charges were dropped.

Later, Randall sent Kassis a letter informing him that the warehouse on Randall Corporation property located next to Pizza Kitchens was going to be demolished and the lot would be filled with dirt to level it off with the sidewalk, Sotak said.

When demolition began, Randall boarded up the windows on the Pizza Kitchens building.

“The boards are there today,” Sotak said.

Also during demolition, dirt was piled against Kassis’ building, and he worried it would cause damage, Sotak said. So Kassis got an injunction to stop Randall from filling the lot.

Randall agreed to erect an eight-foot retaining wall eight inches from the Pizza Kitchens building. But once the wall was built and the warehouse lot filled, water started flooding the restaurant walls and furnishings, Sotak said.

Sotak argued in court that the grade of the Randall lot and sidewalk acted as a funnel runoff into the southwest corner of the building and that Randall purposely channeled water toward Pizza Kitchens.

“This was a deliberate and intentional act by Scott Randall to put Mark Kassis out of business and in essence, take the building away from him,” Sotak said.

Although Randall had plans in the 1980s to redevelop many of the surrounding buildings, he said in the trial Pizza Kitchens was not one of them.

Joel Greer, Randall’s attorney, argued there was always water in the basement of the Pizza Kitchens building.

Richard Taylor of Boone, who owned the Pizza Kitchens building until the early 1970s, testified that there was always some water in the basement and the walls.

Although the jury rendered a verdict, it has not been filed officially yet with the clerk of court. The case still is pending, as there could be possible post-trial motions.

Randall issued a statement reading, “We at Randall Corp. are satisfied with the court’s decision, and we’re glad to resolve the dispute concerning Pizza Kitchens’ wet basement.”