Problem.Dispute.Paint in the History Club

    Rachel and four of her high school friends, looking forward to their graduation from high school in June, asked their families for a joint graduation party on Sunday, June 7, following graduation. They expected to invite over 100 people and decided to cook and serve a fairly lavish dinner to the invited guests.  Rachel's mother Tisha sought to find and rent facilities for the site of the party.

     Tisha liked the facilities of the Los Robles History Club, which included a comfortable, attractive, and large indoor room, an adjoining kitchen with stove, oven, refrigerators, and cooking utensils, and a large outdoor patio, lawn and garden with a pretty view of the adjoining hills.  The History Club leasing representative, Ms. Chaton Gole, discussed the terms of the rental with Tisha and Tisha and Chaton each signed a printed document entitled "Reservation Contract" after filling in blanks on the contract with the date, time, and price.   

     When Tisha and other parents arrived at the History Club a few hours in advance of the party to start decorating and preparing food, they noticed the odor of fresh paint throughout the facility but most strongly in the kitchen.  Tisha later discovered that the kitchen had been repainted Saturday evening, June 6, by History Club volunteers.

     Without any alternative, the parents pushed ahead with decorating but decided that they wouldn't use the kitchen for preparing food both because the odor made some of the parents feel nauseous and because some of the other parents believed that the odor meant that chemicals in the air could somehow contaminate the food.  A few parents made an emergency run to a local eatery to purchase cold sandwiches and salads (for $1,000) in lieu of the cooked chicken and vegetables that the parents had purchased for preparation in the History Club kitchen.  The parents were able to serve the beverages that they had purchased for the party and the dessert that they had prepared the day before the party.  They were also able to freeze the chicken and vegetables and use them for family dinners over the next couple of months.

     The party proceeded but quite a few people complained of the odor and many left early because of it. The next day Tisha called Chaton to complain, citing among other things a clause in the ``Reservation Contract" that read: 

     19. Facilities of History Club to be clean and presentable.

     Tisha demanded that the History Club refund the rental fee ($1250) and also demanded reimbursement for the $1,000 in extra food expense. Chaton refused.

     Tisha filed suit in small claims court. In presenting her case to the judge, Tisha claimed to remember that Chaton had told her during their first meeting that the kitchen was scheduled to be painted by History Club volunteers on Wednesday, June 3.  Tisha also claims that she had responded by saying that she wouldn't want to rent the facilities if it were painted any later. Tisha also claims that Chaton responded to her by saying:  "OK."  In presenting the History Club's case to the judge, Chaton claims that she had told Tisha that the kitchen was probably going to be painted on Wednesday, June 3, and that Tisha did not respond at all to that information.  Who should prevail and why?