This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1948. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.

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 contamination at this property is directly attributed to historical machine shop practices that began in 1948, nearly four decades before the 1986 threshold at which occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies effectively ceased to cover pollution claims. Operators running industrial machine shop equipment during that pre-1986 window were routinely covered by CGL policies with no functional pollution exclusion. The documented remediation expenditures here — soil excavation across three separate areas of concern, waste characterization, laboratory analysis, and ongoing site work — are costs that historical carriers who insured Joes Grinding during its long operational life 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.