This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1929. 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.

Fuel dispensing at this property began nearly six decades before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. The petroleum contamination discovered here — gasoline, diesel, and BTEX compounds leaching from underground storage tanks into soil and groundwater — is precisely the kind of gradual, long-duration release those earlier policies were designed to cover. Documented remediation expenditures spanning from the early 1990s through 2017 and beyond represent costs that historical carriers who wrote CGL coverage during the store's pre-1986 fueling operations may be obligated both to reimburse 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.