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6. How much is the painter likely to recover?

The painter hired a friend to help finish the painting and paid the friend $200. The woman has offered to pay the painter $1,000. The painter is demanding $1,200.

Assume the following facts. If the painter had started to paint on the following Saturday morning, he could have finished before Sunday evening. However, he stayed home that Saturday morning to watch the final game of the World Series on TV and did not start to paint until Saturday afternoon. By late Saturday afternoon, the painter realized that he had underestimated the time it would take to finish the work over the weekend unless he hired a helper. He also stated that to do so would require an additional charge of $200 for the work. The woman told the painter that she apparently had no choice but to pay «whatever it takes» to get the work done as scheduled.

A woman entered into a contract with a painter, by the terms of which the painter was to paint the woman's office for $1,000 and was required to do all of the work over the following weekend so as to avoid disruption of the woman's business.