*1321After living for more than a dozen years in a residential unit he claimed he owned, Alfonso Ayala was evicted by the property owner, Randy Dawson, in an unlawful detainer action. Ayala defended by attempting to quash service of summons on the ground he was not a tenant, but instead held equitable title under an oral installment sale contract for the purchase of property. Dawson countered that, in fact, Ayala was a tenant under a written lease, and had breached the lease in various ways, thus justifying his eviction. After an evidentiary hearing on Ayala's motion to quash service, Dawson prevailed and ultimately took a default judgment. Ayala then vacated the premises.
In this case, a separate, concurrent action by Ayala against Dawson for fraud and various other claims, Ayala once again pursues the theory that he *1322holds equitable title under an installment sale contract. He seeks to argue, as he did in the unlawful detainer action, that Dawson, a real estate broker, deceived him into signing the lease, while misrepresenting that the document was simply the memorialization of a preexisting oral contract of sale. The court granted summary judgment for Dawson, ruling that, under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, Ayala is barred from relitigating his fraud-in-the-inducement theory. This appeal is from the ensuing judgment and from an award of attorney fees in Dawson's favor under the prevailing party fee clause in the lease. We affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
In late 1999, Ayala found a five-unit residential property in Vacaville that he wished to buy, but he could not qualify for a mortgage loan, so he sought the assistance of his friend Dawson, a real estate broker. According to Ayala, the two men struck an oral agreement under which Dawson agreed to obtain the required purchase money mortgage loan and buy the property in Dawson's name for a price of $330,000; Ayala agreed to pay the entire down payment of 20 percent and thereafter pay Dawson a $200 per month fee, plus the monthly principal and interest on the mortgage loan; Ayala agreed to maintain the property and not to commit waste; Ayala agreed to contract with a property management company to manage the rental units; and, upon Ayala's payoff of the entire principal and interest due on the mortgage, Dawson agreed to deed the property to Ayala in fee.
The parties executed a written contract provided by Dawson on December 9, 1999, which Ayala-in reliance on Dawson's superior knowledge of real estate transactions-claims he understood merely to confirm an installment contract for the *920purchase of property on terms the two men had previously discussed. After signing and initialing the papers, Ayala moved into one of the units and contends he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars improving the property over the more than 12 years he lived there. Ayala used a "shop" on the property in his business and may have stored equipment in a "barn" on the property. From January 2000 to 2008, he also paid Dawson $2,700 per month, and from 2008 to July 2012, he paid Dawson $2,900 per month. Payments to Dawson apparently were made by the property management company, which used rental income from the property, supplemented by funds provided by Ayala. Unbeknownst to Ayala-who testified he did not read the "pile of documents" presented to him in December 1999 -the contract he executed was a "RESIDENTIAL LEASE WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE (CALIFORNIA SHORT FORM)," not an installment sale contract. According to Dawson, Ayala allowed the purchase option granted under this lease to expire on December 31, 2004, and thereafter Ayala's interest in the property amounted to nothing more than a month-to-month tenancy. As *1323evidence that both parties understood their relationship that way, Dawson points out he raised what he explicitly denominated as the monthly "rent" from $2,700 per month to $2,900 per month in 2008, without protest of any kind by Ayala.
Despite the fact that the option to purchase had expired, in 2011 Dawson offered to sell the property to Ayala for the original price of $330,000, with a credit for the down payment he had paid. Ayala refused the offer, taking the position he should not have to buy property he already owned. By then, according to Dawson, Ayala had fallen into a pattern of late payment of his monthly rent and had allowed the property to fall into a state of disrepair. As a result, Dawson claimed, he was unable to obtain refinancing, which put him in a financial bind because he was in a "negative cash flow" position.
In June 2012, Ayala filed this action, a lawsuit alleging claims against Dawson for fraud, breach of an oral contract, specific performance, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, and declaratory relief. He later amended the complaint to add claims seeking a quiet title declaration, restitution for unjust enrichment, and the imposition of a constructive trust and a resulting trust. In July 2012, Dawson filed an action of his own for unlawful detainer.
After holding a one and a half day evidentiary hearing in the unlawful detainer action, Judge D. Scott Daniels denied the motion to quash, ruling *1324that "[b]ased on Plaintiff's ... Residential Lease with Option to Purchase and the conduct of the parties, [Dawson had] met his burden of proof to establish the existence of a landlord-tenant relationship...." In denying the motion, Judge Daniels found that Ayala had read and signed the lease, declined to find any basis to relieve Ayala of his contractual obligations, and specifically rejected the theory that Dawson served as Ayala's real estate broker or was Ayala's trusted real estate advisor.
Ayala sought a writ of mandate in the superior court appellate division, requesting review of Judge Daniels's ruling. The appellate division panel denied the writ, specifically affirming Judge Daniels's finding of a landlord-tenant relationship as supported by substantial evidence. The panel also found no merit to a contention from Ayala that he had been deprived of due process because of the expedited handling of the hearing on his motion to quash. In addressing the due process issue, the writ panel stated "[t]he sole issue in the unlawful detainer action is possession and the arguments that [Ayala] wished to raise concerning 'fraud, constructive trust, estoppel, breach of fiduciary duties and many integrally related factual matters' will be exhaustively decided in the separate unlimited civil action [he has] filed," referring to this action.
After affirmance of the denial of the motion to quash in Dawson's unlawful detainer action and entry of judgment in that action by default,
Judge Scott Kays granted Dawson's motion for summary judgment in May 2014. He found that "[Dawson] has shown that [Ayala] is unable to establish an essential element of any of [his] causes of action because [he] is precluded from relitigating the validity and enforceability of the parties' written lease agreement"; that "[a]ll of [Ayala's] causes of action are based on [his]
*1325allegations that [Dawson] improperly memorialized the parties' oral agreement for an installment sales contract as a lease agreement with an option to purchase ... [which Dawson] fraudulently induced [Ayala]
*922to execute ... by misrepresenting the contents of the agreement ..."; and that "the same parties have already fully litigated the validity and enforceability of the lease agreement in a prior unlawful detainer action."
Judgment pursuant to the order granting summary judgment was entered June 11, 2014. An attorney fees award for $27,000 in favor of Dawson under a prevailing party fee clause in the lease issued later, on July 31, 2014. Ayala timely appealed both from the judgment and the attorney fees award.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review and General Principles of Res Judicata
The central issue here is whether the claims Ayala seeks to bring in this action are barred under principles of res judicata by the denial of his motion to quash in Dawson's unlawful detainer action. Except for evidence as to which objections have been made and sustained, we take as true the facts shown by the evidence presented in opposition to a summary judgment motion, reviewing the grant of summary judgment de novo. ( In re Automobile Antitrust Cases I and II (2016)
Before turning to the merits, we begin with a brief overview of res judicata. "The tenets of res judicata prescribe the preclusive effect of a prior final judgment on the merits.... Application of the doctrine of res judicata 'is intended to preserve the integrity of the judicial system, promote judicial economy, and protect litigants from harassment by vexatious litigation.' [Citation.] It 'rests upon the sound policy of limiting litigation by preventing a party who has had one fair adversary hearing on an issue from again drawing it into controversy and subjecting the other party to further expense in its reexamination.' " ( City of Oakland , supra ,
This case involves the second branch of res judicata, which is known interchangeably as issue preclusion and collateral estoppel. Collateral estoppel "precludes relitigation of issues argued and decided in prior proceedings." ( Lucido v. Superior Court (1990)
It is often said that collateral estoppel "is not an easy rule to apply, for the term 'issue' as used in this connection is difficult to define, and the pleadings and proof in each case must be carefully scrutinized to determine whether a particular issue was raised even though some legal theory, argument or 'matter' relating to the issue was not expressly mentioned or *1327asserted." ( Clark v. Lesher (1956)
B. The Collateral Estoppel Effect of Unlawful Detainer Judgments
Because "[a]n unlawful detainer action is a summary proceeding ordinarily limited to resolution of the question of possession[,] ... any judgment arising therefrom generally is given limited res judicata effect." ( Malkoskie v. Option One Mortgage Corp. (2010)
In the specific context we have here, the two leading cases illustrating the collateral estoppel effect of unlawful detainer judgments are Wood v. Herson (1974)
The Wood court's reasoning, as later described by the California Supreme Court in Vella , was as follows. "Noting that the Woods' affirmative defense of fraud in the unlawful detainer action was virtually identical to the fraud allegations upon which their suit for specific performance was based, the court concluded that even though title 'normally is not a permissible issue in an unlawful detainer action,' the essential issues had been fully and fairly disposed of in the earlier proceeding. [Citation.] The court cited in support of its ruling such varied factors as the length of the 'summary' unlawful detainer hearing (seven days), the scope of discovery by the parties ('extensive' and 'complete'), the quality of the evidence ('detailed'), and the general character of the action ('[clearly] ... not the customary unlawful detainer proceeding'). [Citation.] A lengthy and comprehensive superior court record replete with precise findings of fact persuaded the Wood court that application of collateral estoppel to curtail further litigation would involve 'no miscarriage of justice-(the) Woods have had their day in court....' " ( Vella , supra , 20 Cal.3d at p. 256,
The Supreme Court adopted the same frame of analysis but reached the opposite conclusion on the facts in Vella , a case in which a property owner in an eviction action tried to block subsequent litigation against him by the evicted tenant based on the unlawful detainer judgment he obtained. There, the plaintiff, Nancy Vella, alleged she had a long-term "confidential" and "intimate" relationship with the defendant, Everett Hudgins. (Vella , supra , 20 Cal.3d at p. 253,
The Supreme Court distinguished Wood , describing it as an "uncommon" situation in which the parties to an unlawful detainer action had fully and extensively litigated issues beyond simple possession. ( Vella , supra , 20 Cal.3d at p. 257,
*926C. Application of Collateral Estoppel in this Case
This case, in our view, is more akin to Wood than to Vella . Ayala could have moved to consolidate the unlawful detainer proceeding with this action, thus requiring the court to determine whether the issues presented were so complex and so intertwined with the issue of title that " 'the entire case [should be] treated as an ordinary civil action, not as a summary proceeding' " ( Martin-Bragg v. Moore (2013)
The premise of Ayala's attack on jurisdiction in the unlawful detainer proceeding was that Dawson, in breach of his fiduciary duty as a real estate broker, duped Ayala into signing the lease, while misrepresenting it to be an installment sale contract. Judge Daniels considered this issue after holding an evidentiary hearing that ran six and a half courtroom hours, taking testimony from both parties, and admitting extensive documentary evidence. In the end, he specifically rejected the notion that Dawson was Ayala's real estate broker or that Ayala should be excused from performance under the lease for lack of awareness of its terms.
In reviewing the later decision by Judge Kays to give Judge Daniels's rejection of Ayala's fraud-in-the-inducement argument collateral estoppel effect, we determine what was "actually litigated" by looking to the pleadings and the proof. ( Clark , supra , 46 Cal.2d at pp. 880-881,
There was far more here than what the Supreme Court characterized in Vella as the "mere pleading of a defense without objection...." ( Vella , supra , 20 Cal.3d at p. 258,
Prior to the hearing on the motion to quash, Ayala was given the opportunity to take discovery, and he in fact took Dawson's deposition, which he then used extensively, but ultimately to no effect, in cross-*927examining Dawson at the hearing. Unlike the situation in Vella , there was an extensive record, consisting of a 243-page transcript and 21 documentary exhibits, among them the written lease signed by Dawson and Ayala, the ledger of rent *1331payments made by Ayala, and the amortization and payment records for Dawson's mortgage loans on the property. Also included is Judge Daniels's on-the-record explanation of his findings. Judge Daniels found, much as the trial judge in the Wood case did, that this was an unusual case. "[M]y goodness," he stated before announcing his findings, "this is certainly not a typical transaction." After observing that the transaction seemed designed to be a means of financing for Ayala-which is what Dawson had argued, and is what a lease-purchase option accomplishes, where the option is exercised-he proceeded to characterize the parties' relationship legally as one of landlord-tenant. Ayala had the right to seek review of that determination, and availed himself of this right by pursuing a petition for a writ of mandate in the superior court appellate division, without success.
In his writ petition, Ayala argued, as he does here, that Judge Daniels decided only the issue of possession and that the separate and distinct issue of title is not germane in an unlawful detainer proceeding. In the typical case, that is true. But what the argument overlooks is the necessary factual predicate for Judge Daniels's ultimate conclusions-he found that Dawson carried his burden of proof on the question of jurisdiction, that there was an enforceable written lease agreement, and thus, impliedly, that Dawson did not commit fraud-fundamentally undercuts Ayala's claim to equitable title. Indeed, this is exactly what the trial judge in Wood , supra ,
In a final attempt to avoid the collateral estoppel effect of Judge Daniels's adverse ruling against him in the unlawful detainer proceeding, Ayala advances two additional arguments. He contends, first, that because the final order in the unlawful detainer proceeding was a "clerk's judgment" of default, there was no decision on the merits, and, second, even if there was a decision on the merits, because the appellate division panel expressly stated in denying his writ petition that the unlawful detainer proceeding was strictly limited to the issue of possession, the denial of the writ deprives Judge Daniels's findings of any collateral estoppel effect here under the "law of the case" doctrine. We see no merit in either point.
Ayala appeared specially in the unlawful detainer proceeding, contested the issue of jurisdiction-tendering his fraud-in-the-inducement theory as the linchpin issue-was given an evidentiary hearing, and lost on the merits. He does not and cannot argue that Judge Daniels's order was somehow tentative, subject to change, or never reached a point of finality. For purposes of res judicata, it is deemed to be part of the judgment. ( McClain v. Rush (1989)
D. Appeal of the Attorney Fees Award
Ayala's appeal of the attorney fees award against him rises or falls with his appeal of the judgment. He contends only that "[i]f a judgment is reversed and there is also a related appeal from an order awarding attorney fees and/or *1333costs based on the judgment, the attorney's fees and/or costs award will be reversed." (Citing Purdy v. Johnson (1929)
III. CONCLUSION AND DISPOSITION
The judgment is affirmed and the order awarding attorney fees is affirmed. Dawson shall recover his costs.
We concur:
Ruvolo, P.J.
Rivera, J.
Apparently, the debt service on Dawson's original loan had gone up because, in 2003, he initially refinanced the property, converting from a 30-year term loan to a 15-year term loan. His unsuccessful effort to refinance in 2011 appears to have been an effort to lower the debt service cost on the 15-year loan.
On May 21, 2015, Ayala filed a motion requesting that we take judicial notice of various pleadings filed in the unlawful detainer action under Evidence Code sections 451, 452 and 459 and California Rules of Court, rule 8.252. We grant the motion.
Ayala filed a notice of appeal from the judgment against him in the unlawful detainer action, but ultimately abandoned that appeal.
"Besides the classic five criteria for applicability, '[t]here is an equitable component to collateral estoppel' as well. (Direct Shopping Network [, LLC v. James (2012)
See, e.g., Rohrbasser, supra, 179 Cal.App.3d at page 300,
See also Gombiner v. Swartz (2008)
See also Gonzales v. Gem Properties, Inc. (1974)
The appellate division issued a reasoned order denying the petition after undertaking a thorough review of the record, concluding as follows: "It is evident from the trial court's recitation of reasons for its decision that the decision is supported by substantial, if not overwhelming, evidence. [¶] Petitioner admitted that he executed a written lease agreement that gave him an option to purchase the property.... The agreement was clearly labeled 'RESIDENTIAL LEASE WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE (CALIFORNIA SHORT FORM)', established that Petitioner would pay monthly rent of $2,700, indicated that Petitioner would pay nonrefundable option consideration of $77,000, and specifically provided that Petitioner could make any legally conforming use of the property, that Petitioner was solely responsible for maintenance of the property, and that Petitioner was free to sublease without Respondent's consent.... Each page was initialed, confirming that Petitioner had read the page, and Petitioner's signature established that Petitioner had 'thoroughly read and approved' every provision of the agreement.... [¶] Notwithstanding Petitioner's claims that his primary language was Spanish and that he did not actually read the document prior to initialing and signing it, his own testimony established that he was familiar with legal requirements for written contracts as part of his occupation as a licensed contractor, and that he attended and graduated from high school in the United States.... [¶] The terms of the agreement, no matter what Petitioner may or may not have believed, were consistent with the terms orally discussed between the parties. Respondent would purchase the property in Respondent's name.... Petitioner would provide the down payment necessary to purchase the property.... Petitioner would pay Respondent an amount equivalent to the monthly mortgage, interest, insurance and taxes owed on the property plus $200.... The only real dispute is whether the agreement was to be structured as a lease with an option to purchase or an installment land sales agreement, an issue that was never orally discussed prior to the execution of the lease agreement." (Denial of Petition for Writ of Mandate, November 6, 2012, Writ No. FCS 040463 at pp. 3-4, record citations omitted.)