This property has a documented history as a landfill predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.
The Holleman Property served for several decades as a private waste disposal site, with the homeowner burning solid and household hazardous waste in a barrel and placing the resulting ash, incompletely combusted materials, and unburned refuse — including tires, batteries, roofing materials, and plastics — as fill along a seasonal creek at the rear of the property. A neighbor subsequently removed some of the waste, but no formal remediation has been conducted and no cleanup costs have been reported to regulatory agencies. The site remains in Awaiting Cleanup status, with confirmed contamination in soil and surface water. 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 disposal practices documented here — decades of burning and burying household hazardous waste along a creek — began well before 1986, placing the contamination origin firmly within the period when occurrence-based CGL policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The cumulative, long-running nature of these releases is precisely the type of ongoing exposure event those pre-1986 policies were written to cover. As formal cleanup proceeds, the investigation and remediation costs the property owner faces could plausibly be pursued against historical carriers whose policies were in force during the years this disposal was occurring.
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.
