A Warren County jury awarded $105,355 in damages to Vicksburg-based Riverside Construction Company Friday night in its civil suit against the Warren County Port Commission.

After five days of testimony, jurors deliberated nearly 4 1/2 hours, awarding just over 10 percent of the nearly $1 million in damages Riverside had sought.

Port commission president John Moss expressed relief that the total was far less than what might have been leveled at the county.

“I think our attorney did a good job,” Moss said of defense counsel David Sessums, of Varner, Parker and Sessums of Vicksburg .

Riverside can appeal the award, said its attorney, Christoper Solop of the Jackson firm Robinson, Biggs, Ingram, Solop and Farris. That decision remained to be made, he said.

“We prayed about it, and what we got, we got,” said a subdued Lewis Miller, Riverside’s president. “We don’t want any hard feelings. It’s a shame it had to come to this.”

What funds the county will draw on to pay the damages will be determined at a later date by the Warren County Board of Supervisors, said Moss.

Riverside was awarded a $3.4 million contract in 2007 by the port commission to build a new T-dock and crane support platform at the Port of Vicksburg.

After months of disputes, the company sued the port commission in October 2008 claiming additional expenses and asking for rebates of fines the commission had levied after Riverside missed contract deadlines by 67 days.

The initial suit asked for “not less than $893,191 plus attorney’s fees and expenses.” Riverside claimed the commission furnished inadequate engineering plans and refused to cooperate in good faith when additional time was needed to complete the project after river levels rose.

The port commission countered that Riverside knew all along that it could not complete the project on time and overbid the estimate by $1 million partly to build in for possible penalties. Sessums argued that the company had piled on claim upon claim to try to get even more money.

At the start of the trial Monday, when the seven-woman, five-man jury was chosen and testimony began, damages sought had grown to about $917,000. By week’s end, the discovery of a typographical error, interest and additional charges for cross bracing on the platform hiked the total to $992,950.

Jury instructions given by presiding Circuit Judge M. James Chaney said they could award for extra work, labor and materials, overhead, profit and interest at the rate of 8 percent annually.

Solop said a breakdown of the jury’s basis for the final award is not provided, and it was not known which of the suit’s damage claims made up the $105,355.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com