This property has a documented history as a automobile dealership going back to 1978. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property operated as a retail automobile sales lot — with a showroom, parts and service department, and a detached service garage — and included a gasoline underground storage tank that served the dealership's service operations. Contamination from that UST, identified as TPH-G and BTEX in soil and groundwater, has driven multi-phase remediation since at least 2000, including soil excavation in the UST area (with additional excavation in 2019), biostimulation, bioaugmentation, and in-situ chemical reduction. Air sparging and soil vapor extraction systems have been proposed, and continued performance monitoring is ongoing to determine the full restoration timeframe. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
Why Historical Insurance Policies May Be Accessible
Pre-1986 Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies were occurrence-based and did not contain an effective pollution exclusion in Washington. If contamination occurred while those policies were active, those historical insurance carriers may still have a legal obligation to fund the cleanup costs, even if the business closed or the property changed hands.
The gasoline UST at this Puyallup car dealership is estimated, based on its documented excavation date of January 2003 and standard tank lifecycle assumptions, to have been installed around 1978 — placing its operational history squarely in the pre-1986 window when CGL policies issued to automobile dealerships like Cornforth-Campbell Motors were occurrence-based and written before any meaningful pollution exclusion took hold in Washington. The remediation expenditures traceable to that tank — soil excavations, years of biostimulation and chemical treatment, and the planned vapor extraction buildout — are exactly the kind of costs those historical carriers may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful coverage claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage. Restorical then manages the claim, including accounting, to ensure the cleanup is funded in a timely manner.
What We Look For
- Historical insurance policies (pre-1986)
- Policy numbers, carrier names, and coverage periods
- Connection between contamination timing and policy period
- Evidence linking cleanup obligation to insured activity
What We Deliver
- Historical Coverage Chart
- Trigger Analysis & Property/Policy Nexus
- Coverage strategy with recommendations
- Insurance funding for your remediation
- Claims Management & Forensic Accounting
The Restorical Proven Process
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Contact UsThis analysis is preliminary and based on publicly available records. Restorical Research is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
