In Knickerbocker v. City of Stockton (1988) 199 Cal. App. 3d 235, the plaintiff was a police lieutenant who was fired but then, as the result of a civil service commission hearing, was reinstated at the rank of sergeant. The commission determined that he was properly demoted for disciplinary reasons, but that he was improperly fired. Without filing a petition for a writ of administrative mandate to challenge the first determination, the plaintiff filed a complaint in superior court alleging the city had committed various torts against him and seeking damages. The city successfully demurred to the plaintiff's complaint on the ground the plaintiff had failed to exhaust his judicial remedies by seeking judicial review of the commission's decision. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment in favor of the city based on its conclusion that some of the plaintiff's causes of action were not precluded by the doctrines of exhaustion of judicial remedies or issue preclusion, namely claims involving his improper discharge. But the court held that other claims were barred, namely those causes of action which were inconsistent with the adverse finding that the plaintiff's demotion was justified. The court held that as to those issues, it had been conclusively established that the plaintiff was properly demoted for disciplinary reasons, and he was barred from contending otherwise. ( Knickerbocker, supra, 199 Cal. App. 3d at pp. 244-246.)