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The case was something of a shocker: A Yuba County jury awarded $16.2million in damages to a Plumas Lake homeowner who nearly lost his home to foreclosure after his loan servicer mishandled his mortgage modification.

But the presiding judge has decided the jury got it mostly wrong.

Yuba Superior Court Judge Stephen Berrier has tossed out the vast majority of damages against New Jersey-based loan servicer PHH Mortgage Services. Homeowner Phillip Linza is entitled to only $159,000 in damages, the judge said.

The original verdict, in July, had represented a huge victory for Linza and his lawyers at the United Law Center in Roseville. The attorneys said it was one of the biggest jury awards they’d seen representing homeowners in mortgage-related cases.

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