Opinion ID: 410990
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The inferences in this case

Text: 17 Applying these principles to the facts of this case, we hold that the verdict cannot stand because a finding that negligence of the nursing home proximately caused Daniels' death is a product of too great a degree of speculation and conjecture based on the evidence in this record. 18 First, with respect to negligence, there was sufficient evidence from which a jury could infer that Daniels exited the home through negligence of the defendant. An exit door was kept unlocked, and a nurses' station that had to be passed in order to exit was required to be attended. No trace of Daniels was found in the home. Thus, the evidence supports inferences that he exited through this door and did so because of the home's negligence in either failing to keep the station attended or failing to monitor the exit properly. 19 As to the fact of death, the evidence permitted the jury to find that Daniels is no longer living. 6 Here the direct evidence ends. It is unknown whether Daniels exited alone or accompanied by or taken by someone else. We assume, however, that based upon the prior history of escapes and wandering the jury could infer that Daniels exited on his own and wandered away from the home. There is no direct evidence of where he went or of the cause of death; these facts must be inferentially determined. Plaintiff concedes that the bare fact of disappearance, plus presumed death, is insufficient to support an inference of proximate cause of death. But plaintiff points to circumstantial evidence that he contends is sufficient to support two theories of death either of which might have been accepted by the jury and both of which are within the foreseeable risks of wandering from the home. 20 First, plaintiff observes that Daniels was taking heart medication as near as six weeks prior to his disappearance and suggests that a jury could infer that Daniels died as the result of failure to take his medication. But there is no evidence in the record concerning the purpose of the medication indicating that it was vital or life-sustaining. The jury was not even told what Daniels' heart ailment was beyond a statement that the medicine he was taking was usually given for some coronary insufficiency or an angina-like syndrome. 7 A reasonable and fair-minded juror could not draw from this evidence a conclusion that Daniels died from his heart condition as a consequence of not receiving medication for that condition. 21 Plaintiff's second theory is that the jury could infer that Daniels wandered into the woods adjacent to the nursing home and perished from exposure or accident. In the midst of the woods is the swamp. Possibly the jury might infer that Daniels in his infirm and senile condition died from exposure or accident in the woods if there were sufficient evidence that he went into the woods, but the evidence is insufficient to support this preliminary finding. The evidence that Daniels might have wandered into the woods consists of this: during a prior escape he had entered the woods; the woods are adjacent to the home; and his body was never discovered elsewhere. We examine this circumstantial evidence to determine whether it is strong enough to support a rational inference that Daniels wandered into the woods. 22 Daniels' prior excursion into the woods gives insubstantial support to this inference. Of the seven or eight instances where Daniels left the home in the past, he only once went into the woods. 8 In all other instances Daniels went into the surrounding residential neighborhood; he exhibited a particular preference for a nearby cemetery. More important, however, is that the only prior incident of going into the woods was remote in time, occurring five years prior to Daniels' final disappearance. This does not establish a habit or propensity or substantial likelihood of his wandering into the woods on the date of his disappearance. 23 The proximity of the woods and the fact that Daniels was never discovered, while consistent with the theory that Daniels wandered into the woods, suggest only that disappearance in the woods was one possibility. Daniels might have disappeared in any one of a number of ways. To mention only a few, a passing motorist might have given him a ride out of town, he might have been the victim of violent crime, or he might have gone into an abandoned building and died from natural causes unrelated to his wandering. Because there is no evidence concerning the character of the surrounding neighborhood tending to negate these other possibilities, the mere possibility that he wandered into the woods is too speculative to be the basis for a jury verdict. 24 Furthermore, the bare possibility suggested by the proximity of the woods and Daniels' disappearance is at war with uncontradicted ... facts. Fenner v. General Motors, supra, 657 F.2d at 650-51. There was no ready access into the woods. A fence surrounding three sides of the nursing home separated the home from the woods. In addition, there was uncontradicted testimony from an employee who searched the woods that after going in 10 to 15 feet the thickness of the woods made it hard to proceed without breaking limbs. As the district court acknowledged, the woods were nearly impenetrable. In his earlier venture into the woods Daniels made it through to the far side of the swamp, but the jury did not know whether five years earlier the woods were as penetrable or impenetrable as when Daniels disappeared. The wooded area was searched with no success by a team of four policemen with trained dogs for a period of two to three hours, and the assistant administrator of the home searched it on several occasions. 9 Plaintiff asserts that there was never a thorough search of the woods, but there is no evidence indicating that these efforts were insufficient. 25 In conclusion, a careful analysis shows Daniels' prior excursion into the woods to be the only evidence that tends to give real substance to the possibility of disappearance in the woods. In the circumstances of this case, however, where this event occurred five years earlier as only one incident in a number of wanderings, this evidence is so slight and remote as to amount to at most a scintilla of evidence. Without any greater indication of how Daniels disappeared and of what caused his death an inference of proximate cause remains too speculative to be one supported by substantial evidence. Boeing, supra, 411 F.2d at 374. 26 We do not reach our conclusion on the strength of inferences contrary to the verdict. This is not a case where the evidence supports conflicting inferences. Instead, this is a case where there is no evidence beyond a mere scintilla that tells us what happened to Daniels; it is this lack of evidence that keeps the case from the jury and requires a directed verdict against the party with the burden of proof. We do not require that the cause of death be identified with scientific precision. See Alman Brothers Farms & Feed Mill, Inc. v. Diamond Laboratories, Inc., 437 F.2d 1295, 1301 (5th Cir.1971). However, the evidence must support an explanation of the cause of death that is sufficiently articulated that the jury is not permitted to engage in an unallowable degree of speculation. Plaintiff's explanations are not supported by the evidence. 27 Cases cited by plaintiff do not contradict our holding. In other cases where a nursing home or similar institution was held liable for a patient who wandered away and died, the body was found and the cause of death was ascertainable; therefore the only litigated issue was the negligence of the home, not proximate cause. See Krestview Nursing Home, Inc. v. Synowiec, 317 So.2d 94 (Fla.App.1975), cert. denied, 333 So.2d 463 (1976); Milton v. State, 293 So.2d 645 (La.Ct.App.1974). See generally, Liability of Hospital or Sanitarium for Injury or Death of Patient as a Result of His Escape or Attempted Escape, 70 A.L.R.2d 347 (1960); Patient Tort Liability of Rest, Convalescent or Nursing Homes, 83 A.L.R.3d 871, at Sec. 7, Wandering Away (1978). Plaintiff erroneously attempts to rely on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. This doctrine may be used only to prove negligence, not proximate cause. Georgia Power Co. v. Edmonds, 233 Ala. 273, 275, 171 So. 256, 258 (1936); Alabama Power Co. v. Bryant, 226 Ala. 251, 254, 146 So. 602, 605 (1933). 28 Judge Hoffman agrees with this opinion with respect to the granting of judgment n.o.v., that is, the merits of the state law claim. He has, however, filed a special concurring opinion, expressing his view that the claim brought under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 does not present a substantial federal claim and should have been dismissed. With no substantial federal claim stated, in his view, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the state wrongful death claim. 29 Chief Judge Godbold is of the view that the Sec. 1983 claim was not subject to dismissal since prior decisions did not inescapably render the claim[s] frivolous. Curtis v. Taylor, 625 F.2d 645, 649-50 (5th Cir.1980); Jackson v. Stinchcomb, 635 F.2d 462, 471 (5th Cir.1981). Judge Anderson concurs in this view but dissents on the merits of the state law claim and has filed a dissenting opinion on that issue. 30 The judgment is AFFIRMED.