Ayala

*1321 After 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 *1322 holds 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…