diff --git a/nodejs/__test__/arrow.test.ts b/nodejs/__test__/arrow.test.ts
index e0859c754..64228e870 100644
--- a/nodejs/__test__/arrow.test.ts
+++ b/nodejs/__test__/arrow.test.ts
@@ -527,6 +527,19 @@ describe.each([arrow15, arrow16, arrow17, arrow18])(
         ).toEqual(nestedRecords.map((record) => record.items));
       });
 
+      it("will reject incompatible deferred evidence within a list", function () {
+        for (const items of [
+          [[], 1],
+          [1, []],
+          [[null], 1],
+          [1, [null]],
+        ]) {
+          expect(() => makeArrowTable([{ items }])).toThrow(
+            "Failed to infer data type for field items at row 0.",
+          );
+        }
+      });
+
       it("will reject empty fixed-size lists", function () {
         expect(() =>
           makeArrowTable([{ vector: [1, 2, 3] }, { vector: [] }]),
diff --git a/nodejs/lancedb/arrow.ts b/nodejs/lancedb/arrow.ts
index e939efea3..d3e1e0884 100644
--- a/nodejs/lancedb/arrow.ts
+++ b/nodejs/lancedb/arrow.ts
@@ -857,12 +857,14 @@ function inferType(
       );
     }
     let valueType: DataType | undefined;
+    const deferredItems: unknown[] = [];
     for (const item of value) {
       const itemType = inferType(item, path, opts);
       if (itemType === undefined) {
         if (!hasOnlyNoTypeEvidence(item)) {
           return undefined;
         }
+        deferredItems.push(item);
       } else if (valueType === undefined) {
         valueType = itemType;
       } else if (!compareInferredTypes(valueType, itemType)) {
@@ -872,6 +874,11 @@ function inferType(
     if (valueType === undefined) {
       return undefined;
     }
+    for (const item of deferredItems) {
+      if (!noTypeEvidenceMatchesType(item, valueType)) {
+        return undefined;
+      }
+    }
     // Try to automatically detect embedding columns.
     if (nameSuggestsVectorColumn(path[path.length - 1])) {
       // Check if value is a Uint8Array for integer vector type determination