A Hyde Park construction firm must pay Dorchester’s First Baptist Church over $288,000 in damages after a Suffolk Superior Court jury issued a verdict in the church’s favor this week.

The owners of the church, located at the corner of Adams St. and Ashmont St., sued P. Gioioso & Sons Inc., alleging the firm was negligent while repairing and replacing water lines along parts of Adams St., causing an Elmer Rd. pipe to burst and flood the church’s basement on a Sunday night in August 2005.

Parishioners allege the burst pipe caused $350,000 in damages to the church, including damaging the church’s safe, two brand new boilers, the organ motor, the kitchen and two bathrooms.

According to court documents, the jury found P. Gioioso & Sons negligent and on May 5 awarded $288,295 in damages to the church. The trial, overseen by Judge Elizabeth Fahey, lasted about two weeks.

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