Dealing with Decades of Legacy Pollution
Decades of vehicle fleet operations left behind contamination across a multistate real estate portfolio. Historical insurance policies have been funding the cleanup on a site-by-site basis.
Problem
This client was a beverage distributor founded in the 1930s that operated until the business was sold in 2010. By that point, the company’s land holdings were extensive, encompassing a diversified portfolio of industrial, office, and retail properties throughout the western United States. Several of those sites had been used to fuel the company’s vehicle fleet during its operational years, leaving behind legacy contamination across multiple states.
The client was facing substantial remediation costs across several properties when Restorical Research was engaged. At that point, they had not been advised that their historical insurance policies might carry recoverable value. Critically, the business had been sold through an asset purchase, meaning the client retained rights to those historical policies.
Solution
Restorical approached the problem by rebuilding the client’s full operational and insurance history across the life of the business.
Restorical’s process focused on:
- Tracing the company’s insurance footprint from its founding in the 1930s through the 2010 sale
- Confirming that the asset purchase structure preserved the client’s rights to historical CGL policies
- Identifying policies in force during the periods of active fuel storage and fleet operations
- Locating primary and excess coverage predating standard pollution exclusions
- Coordinating findings across multiple states and multiple contaminated sites within the portfolio
Where prior advisors had not identified recoverable coverage, Restorical located historical policies applicable to the contaminated properties.
Impact
With historical coverage identified, the client has been able to address remediation costs across the portfolio without absorbing those costs directly.
As cleanup has progressed, the client has sold off many of the legacy properties without reducing sale prices to account for outstanding contamination, as historical coverage has been funding that work.
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