Shawn McGrath
shawn.mcgrath@heraldbulletin.com
It’s every arachnophobe’s or homeowner’s nightmare: The home you just bought already has tenants — hundreds of poisonous brown recluse spiders.
That was the reality for Chad Cook, his pregnant wife and their 1- and 3-year-old children in April 2005, when they moved into their home at 906 Whitmore St. in Anderson and discovered the poisonous arachnids had infested their home.
Brown recluses are small, about 3/8 inch long and 3/16 inch wide. Its bite is especially dangerous to children and the elderly, according to a Purdue University Entomology Department newsletter about the spider. The reaction to the bite depends on the amount of venom injected, and such bits are usually very painful almost immediately. The bite causes a white blister at the site, and the area enlarges and becomes inflamed. The skin hardens and dies, eventually peeling away and leaving a “sunken, ulcerated sore up to the size of a silver dollar,” according to the newsletter.
The infestation sparked a lawsuit when the spiders couldn’t be done away with. Allstate, the insurer for the Cooks, wouldn’t compensate the family for its uninhabitable home. The family also sued for compensation for punitive damages, financial losses, emotional distress and the covered value of the home and its contents under the insurance policy, $187,000.
The ensuing legal battle between the family and Allstate, which dragged on for more than two years, is only now drawing to a close. The Cooks, unable to live in their own home or remove most of their possessions, had to rely on assistance from friends, family and Good Samaritans through their church. All the while, the family continued to pay the mortgage on the home.
“The stress caused Cook to lose his job as a staff accountant,” Debra Marron, the Cooks’ Indianapolis attorney, writes in the complaint. “The stress and dislocation has caused Cook and each member of his family to suffer emotional distress. Their individual and collective health and well-being have suffered.”
According to court documents filed in the lawsuit:
Cook noticed the spiders when he first inspected the home, but assumed they were ordinary household spiders. He first began to suspect they were brown recluses in August 2005. Experts at Purdue University confirmed his suspicions that September and told Cook to immediately move his family out of the residence.
Cook contacted his insurer that month, requesting coverage. It was a request he repeated over the next eight months. He immediately had his home treated by exterminators, and the family moved back in that December. But the spiders still weren’t gone, and the family moved out a week later. The home was treated several times, but the spiders weren’t completely eradicated. Specialists trapped more than 300 of the spiders in the home.
In June 2006, Allstate sent the Cooks a letter, denying their claim that the house was uninhabitable. The company claimed that the Cooks’ policy doesn’t cover losses “caused by ... insects, rodents, birds or domestic animals.” The insurer also claimed the Cooks didn’t do everything possible to minimize damage to their home.
When Allstate denied the claim, the Cooks took the company to court. During a hearing in November 2007, Allstate claimed, in part, that the Cooks’ lawsuit should be dismissed because spiders are, in fact, an insect. The argument failed to persuade Madison Superior Court 2 Judge Jack Brinkman.
“Cook cites a children’s encyclopedia, an adult encyclopedia and a scientific article establishing spiders are not insects,” Brinkman writes in the order allowing Cook to sue for losses covered by the homeowner’s policy. “All of these materials — elementary to advanced — distinguish spiders from insects. For example, spiders have eight legs; insects have six. Spiders have two body parts; insects have three.
“Brown Recluse Spiders living, breeding and hunting on and within surfaces of the home are a physical condition that renders the home unsuitable for its intended use,” Brinkman continues. “The undisputed evidence is that the Brown Recluse spiders make it unsafe for Cook and his very young children to live in the home and also that Cook has not been able to sell the home, even at a loss.”
Cook and Allstate settled the suit before Brinkman was to hear the case during a bench trial on Dec. 19. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
A telephone listing for Cook could not be located. His father, Everett Cook, said Chad declined comment because he doesn’t want to jeopardize the settlement with the insurance carrier.
“A condition of settlement was a pretty hefty confidentiality agreement,” said Marron, Cook’s attorney. “I’ve really discouraged him from talking to the media because he has a lot to lose.”
Indianapolis attorney Jon Abernathy, who represented Allstate in the lawsuit, did not return messages seeking comment.
Marron said the Cooks still do not live in the home. The residence was rented out until recently — with the renter’s full knowledge of the spider problem — but the Cooks are trying to sell the home.
“The house has been treated continuously,” Marron said earlier this week. “There are still brown recluse spiders in the house, but the numbers are way down. Yes, they’re scary and children shouldn’t be around them, but they’re not that uncommon in Indiana.”
