We agree with you that raccoons are not vermin.

As the term vermin is not more specifically defined in the policy, an insured is entitled to the most favorable common usage definition of the term. Implicit in the word vermin is the concept of infestation. Even if one could imagine the possibility of an infestation of raccoons, in the case you cite the damage was apparently done by only one raccoon, effectively disqualifying the damage as being caused by an infestation of vermin.

Few court cases deal with the definition of vermin in all risk policies. One such case, North British & Mercantile Ins. Co. v. Mercer, 90 Ga. App. 143 (1954), found that a squirrel that descended a chimney of the insured's house and damaged furnishings, including a maple chair, a brass lamp, lamp shades, and sofa cushions was not to be considered vermin as the word was used in the policy's exclusion of “damaged caused by moth, vermin and inherent vice.”

The court found the persuasive argument was that even though the dictionary included rodents in its examples of vermin, it was faulty logic to concluded that since all squirrels are rodents; and since rats, mice and other rodents are vermin; therefore, squirrels must be vermin. According to the court, the insurer did not prove that all rodents were vermin.

A second case on the subject, Sincoff v. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 230 N.Y.S.2d 13 (1961), was decided in favor of the insurance company. In this case, carpet beetles damaged antique armchairs, Aubusson tapestry, and imported broadloom carpeting. The court held that carpet beetles fell within the ordinary meaning of the term “vermin.”

However, a dissenting opinion pointed out that there is not a common agreement, even among dictionaries, as to the meaning of the word “vermin” and that such ambiguity should allow the insured the benefit of the most favorable common definition, which in that case did not include carpet beetles.

Vermin is a subjective term, subject to many interpretations depending on the prejudice of the interpreter. In fact, one of the few agreements among all the dictionary definitions of “vermin” is to include objectionable persons in the definition, but no one would argue that vandalism damage done by an objectionable person should be excluded from an all risk policy.