Is there a "public interest exception" to res judicata?

Guessous nevertheless argues that the "public-interest exception" to res judicata applies because "the French rulings fail to meet the standard of a fair trial before a California court." (See City of Sacramento v. State of California (1990) 50 Cal.3d 51, 64 ["'[W]hen the issue is a question of law rather than of fact, the prior determination is not conclusive either if injustice would result or if the public interest requires that relitigation not be foreclosed'"].) Guessous argues that because the settlement agreement, by its

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