Dog tries to bit man in school parking lot, man jumps on teacher's car, insurance company screws over man

Here's the situation:

In August, I went in early to school to set up my classroom. The JV Football team was practicing. During practice, I heard a dog outside barking at the kids. I looked outside and saw a couple of adults chase the dog away - but the dog did seem genuinely nasty.

I thought it was over, but when I went out to my car several hours later, I had a note on it, from a parent of a student in my school. The man, when picking up his son from practice, had jumped on the hood of my car to escape this stray dog and dented it. He left his name and number. I called him, and he apologized profusely, and agreed to pay my deductible.

After several weeks of poor service from my insurance company (Erie Insurance, by the way), finally I have been mailed a check for the repair, which costs nearly $1000. I've got the repair lined up for next week, when I'll be out of town.

The thing is, I got a call from the guy today, and my insurance company is going after him for all the money (minus my deductible of $250). "I feel like I'm being punished for being an honest guy," he says. "I had to escape the dog; it was attacking me. And I left my name and number and now this is happening."

And he's absolutely right.

I don't know what to do.

I remind you this is a very nice guy, doing the right thing, an involved parent of a nice kid, escaping for his life because of a stray dog on school property.

He doesn't think his car or his home insurance will cover this, or what the deductible is - could be very high.

Any thoughts?