Lawsuit asks whether a wild, rampaging deer is an ‘animal’

An Eastern Iowa veterinary hospital is suing its insurer in a dispute over the definition of an “animal.”

Animal Eye Consultants of Iowa, in Hiawatha, is suing Sentinel Insurance Co. in U.S. District Court, alleging breach of contract and bad faith.

According to its website, AECI provides clinical and hospital treatment for animals specifically related to vision and eye health.

The lawsuit alleges that about 8:15 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2024, an adult deer crashed through one of the hospital’s windows and entered the building. “The deer rampaged through the property’s interior spaces, destroying numerous veterinarian specialty equipment, as well as computers, screens, media devices, and other pertinent veterinarian supplies,” the lawsuit claims.

Later that day, AECI’s chief executive, Dr. Sinisa Grozdanic, filed an insurance claim with the hospital’s insurer, Sentinel. The insurance company then sent a hired adjuster to the hospital to assess the damage and prepare an initial financial estimate of the loss.

The insurer later sent an estimate to Grozdanic, who concluded the adjuster did not have the knowledge or expertise to estimate the loss, according to the lawsuit. AECI then contacted actuarial experts in an attempt to secure estimates of what it perceived to be the actual damages sustained by the business.

According to the lawsuit, Sentinel then expressed its view that portions of AECI’s claims were excluded under the supplemental policy that theoretically provided an additional $350,000 in coverage for damage to computers and computer equipment.

That supplemental policy allegedly lists specific exclusions, stating in part, “We will not pay for loss or damage caused by or resulting from … insects, birds, rodents, or other animals.”

The lawsuit states that AECI countered with various legal opinions indicating the exclusion was “not meant for large, wild animals causing physical damage to the property, but instead was designed to eliminate liability for the insurer should an infestation of similar nuisance animals be discovered on the property after a mechanical failure.”

The lawsuit cites legal rulings that indicate when “general words follow an enumeration of specific items, the general words are construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those enumerated.”

Interpreting the insurance policy, as Sentinel has, so that the phrase “other animals” includes a large, noninvasive wild deer to be similar or reasonably similar in nature to insects, birds and rodents is “improper, and Sentinel’s misinterpretation was purposeful, and intended to cause harm to AECI,” the lawsuit alleges.

With the dispute still unresolved, losses at the hospital continue to accrue, the lawsuit claims.

Sentinel has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, which was originally filed Oct. 31 in Linn County District Court before being moved to federal court this week.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.