Suppose in a bench trial, a witness testifies that she does indeed "own blue pants." Later in the testimony she mentions that all her blue pants have been in storage since the 1970s.
In the judge's decision, the judge finds that the witness owns blue pants and therefore was the woman on the video footage, etc. In other words, the case was decided based on the witness being the woman in blue pants even though she never testified to having worn such pants in years.
Was the judge allowed to draw such conclusions from testimony? Can his inference be appealed?
