Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

The issue is whether it was reasonable for you to believe that the staff member could over rule the contract language which provides I assume for a full month's payment in advance of that month. Normally, that probably would not be a reasonable expectation. How high in the organization [how powerful] is that staff member, what is the exact contract language as to payments, how easy was it to speak to the owner, were you aware of others making such payment modifications, why did you want to pay for only part of June, were you planning on withdrawing from the program after that first week of June and did you tell the staff member, etc.

I would need to know the answers to the above and other questions to be able to make a more accurate opinion, but my guess based upon what you have told us thus far is that it is a very close question but that it is slightly more likely that you should not have relied upon the staff members statement as normally the owner would not waive their contractual rights to get more money.