Although a jury is entitled to draw reasonable inferences from circumstantial evidence, reasonable inferences themselves must be more than speculation and conjecture. Galloway v. United States, 319 U.S. 372 (1943). For example, in Daniels v. Twin Oaks Nursing Home, 692 F.2d 1321 (11th Cir. 1982), the court rejected as too speculative inferences that a nursing home was negligent and therefore liable for a resident’s wrongful death when he wandered off while under the nursing home’s care. Upholding the district court’s grant of judgment n.o.v., the court stated that, “a jury will not be allowed to engage in a degree of speculation and conjecture that renders its finding a guess or mere possibility. Such an inference is infirm because it is not based on the evidence.”

Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide …, loc. 237