This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1932. 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.

Service station operations at this property began fifty years before 1986, placing the entire operational life of the facility squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability coverage that carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Total lead contamination has been consistently detected in soil and groundwater, and the remediation costs already incurred — large-scale excavation, water treatment, years of bioremediation, and decades of groundwater monitoring — trace directly to releases from those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who covered the station during its half-century of operation may be obligated both to recover past cleanup expenditures and to fund the monitoring and remediation work that continues today.

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.