In the end, it took a jury less than an hour to decide Hermitage Development Corp., owner of the Hermitage Square Plaza, was not responsible for the devastating fire that destroyed more than a dozen businesses in 1998.

The 12-person jury decided in favor of the defendants in the nearly weeklong civil case.

Three former tenants, Patrick Engrao, Stephen Moses and Howard J. Nagle, had sued the company in Mercer County Court, claiming it was liable for the fire. They claimed the company had not maintained the building properly, causing the fire that destroyed their offices.

"The first issue is: What is the duty of a landlord to a tenant in a commercial situation?" Peter Acker, attorney for the company, asked during his closing arguments Tuesday.

He asked jurors to set aside their personal experiences with rental contracts, saying commercial leases are quite different from residential contracts.

Unless a specific clause was in the original contract, he said, the landlord was not responsible for the tenants' electrical systems.

"The tenants," he said, "completed the spaces in accordance with their needs."