This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1955. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.
This property hosted gasoline service stations continuously from approximately 1955 through 2010 under three successive operators: Fletcher Oil (circa 1955–1966), Go-N-Joy (1966–1980), and 7-Eleven, which installed three single-wall 12,000-gallon metal USTs in August 1981 and operated the facility until the station was permanently removed in 2010. Petroleum contamination — TPH-D and TPH-O — is attributed to the pre-1980 Fletcher Oil and Go-N-Joy operations. Response activities to date have included soil excavations removing 29 tons in 1995 and 329 tons in 2010, dual-phase extraction treating 650,000 gallons of groundwater from 1998 to 2002, a multi-phase extraction event in 2016 that recovered 43,540 gallons of groundwater and 762 pounds of gasoline vapor, a 2021 in-situ bioremediation pilot injection, and continuous groundwater monitoring since 1996. 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 petroleum releases here originated from UST operations conducted by Fletcher Oil and Go-N-Joy between 1955 and 1980 — a 25-year window during which occurrence-based CGL policies were the industry standard and the standard pollution exclusion did not apply to gradually occurring releases in Washington. Carriers who issued policies to those operators during that specific 1955–1980 period may remain obligated under those policies to fund the cleanup work still ahead. With a bioremediation pilot completed in 2021 but full-scale remediation yet to commence, the costs the property owner now faces — system design, remediation deployment, and long-term monitoring — are precisely what those historical policies were written to cover.
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.
