Topeka ? The Kansas Highway Patrol does not have to pay a year’s rent on a building it now owns, according to a Shawnee County District judge’s ruling Friday.

“We are pleased with the ruling,” said Ben Bauman, spokesman for the state Department of Administration.

Together with the Highway Patrol, the Department of Administration in November of 2001 sued Billard Properties, a Topeka development group, after it refused to sell an 80,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility it built for the Highway Patrol at Topeka’s Phillip Billard Municipal Airport.

Billard Properties, a partnership that includes former Secretary of State Jack Brier, argued that the Highway Patrol had missed a 30-day deadline for buying the building and, consequently, was obligated to pay rent for at least a year — about $490,000.

Billard Properties last year sold the building to the Highway Patrol for $4.1 million. The rent dispute remained unresolved.

In his decision Friday, Judge Eric Rosen ruled the Highway Patrol had given sufficient notice of its intent to buy the building and that the notice was within the 30-day window.

“This was one of those honest disagreements as to what was agreed to,” Bauman said. “It’s unfortunate that it took this long to resolve and that we had to go to court to do so.”

Brier, now a Topeka developer, is a partner in Billard Properties. Other partners include Dick Pratt, Ferrell Construction of Topeka and Schwerdt Design Group.

Attempts to reach Billard Properties for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

Rosen ruled that Billard Properties was entitled to one month’s rent: $44,313.