ALFRED — A jury has rejected the claim of a Massachusetts woman who sought $700,000 in damages after she said she was bitten by a rat on the outdoor deck of a shorefront restaurant in Kennebunkport.

But the lawyer representing Susan Zemaitis of Leicester, Mass., says his client has grounds for an appeal.

After two hours of deliberations at the close of a two-day trial, a York County Superior Court jury decided last Thursday that the Landing Restaurant was not liable for damages to Ms. Zemaitis.

Ms. Zemaitis, who was seeking damages to cover medical bills, emotional distress and limitations on her lifestyle, claimed she was bitten Aug. 29, 1986, as she and three friends were sitting on the restaurant’s outdoor deck overlooking the harbor.

“Suddenly and without warning,” she said in court records, a dark gray rat bit the small toe on her right foot.

“I made a loud sound…my toe was bleeding,” she said.

Valerie Stanfill, attorney for the restaurant, praised the verdict.

“I was never too sure what it was they wanted,” she said of Ms. Zemaitis’ case. “Their argument boiled down to: You can’t eat outside near the water. If that were the case, we might as well close down the tourism industry in Maine.”

Ms. Stanfill said the rodent that apparently bit Ms. Zemaitis was only two inches long. “It sounds like a mouse that came up from the wharf,” she said.

Ms. Zemaitis’ lawyer, Dan Warren, expressed surprise at the jury’s decision.

“The verdict said it was virtually OK for the Landing Restaurant to have rats in there,” he said.

Warren said the trial judge’s refusal to admit as evidence two sanitation citations the restaurant received in 1987 offers grounds for an appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

“We thought that was relevant because a couple of witnesses were able to testify that the restaurant has an excellent reputation in regard to health and sanitation,” he said.

Robert Peterson, head of the state’s restaurant inspection program, said before the trial that the Landing “had a few violations, but nothing outstanding” in the last six years.

After Ms. Zemaitis was bitten, she received a tetanus shot and a prescription for medication from a local clinic. She shortened her vacation by four days.

She declined rabies shots because of possible side effects and had to wait a year before the possibility of infection was over.