Time has run out on the Domino's Pizza pledge to deliver food in 30 minutes or less.

The policy cost the company a $79 million court judgment Friday. So Tuesday, Domino's founder Thomas Monaghan said the pizzamaker had scrapped the delivery guarantee, effective immediately.

Instead, Domino's will promise another pizza or a full refund to any customer who isn't satisfied with the food or service.

Domino's created the 30-minute guarantee in 1984, and it helped make the company the world's largest pizza delivery company, with 5,300 locations.

"This 30-minute guarantee has become part of the culture of this country," Monaghan said at a news conference Tuesday in Detroit. But consumer groups have charged for years that the policy encourages reckless driving by delivery people.

A St. Louis jury reached the same conclusion last week in the case of Jean Kinder, who was hit by a Domino's delivery driver in 1989. The jurors ordered Domino's to pay her $750,000 in actual damages and $78 million in punitive damages.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted one juror as saying of Domino's: "They don't care about public safety. They care only about the almighty dollar."

Monaghan called the verdict "totally out of line with the facts of the case," and he promised an appeal.

Monaghan said the delivery guarantee policy had been under review for some time but that the St. Louis verdict "was the thing that put it over the edge."

He said Domino's owned by franchisees may continue to offer the guarantee.

Monaghan said that even without the guarantee, Domino's would continue to deliver most pizzas about as fast as it does now, because getting the pizza cooked quickly is the most important part of fast delivery.

Critics of the Domino's policy hailed the policy change.

"We're pleased that they apparently listened to the message that the jury was sending them," said Paul Kovacs, whose law firm won the huge judgment for Kinder. "The jury was speaking as the conscience of the community."

Barry Spevack, a Chicago lawyer who represented a Calumet City, Ill., man whose wife was killed in a 1990 collision with a Domino's Pizza driver, said: "I guess I'm not surprised, in light of the verdict from St. Louis. We believed that they had sacrificed safety for profit."

Domino's settled the Illinois case out of court for $2.8 million in May.

Domino's built its reputation by heavily advertising the 30-minute guarantee in the 1980s. But in recent years it had touted its pizzas' taste, new twisty breads or extra toppings in its promotions.

Monaghan said there'll be no advertising blitz to promote the new policy. "We're not going to do any more advertising than we do now," he said.

Monaghan said Domino's will show a profit this year after two years of losses. Monaghan would not directly reveal how much profit he expects, but the later predicted 1993 sales of $2.3 billion.