This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1936. 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.

The petroleum releases here are attributable to gasoline station operations that ran from the 1930s through approximately 1950 — three to four decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion. Any carriers who issued CGL coverage to operators of this station during that window wrote policies that may respond to both the investigation costs already incurred and the remediation expenditures that lie ahead. A contamination origin this far predating the 1986 threshold is precisely the scenario these historical policies were designed 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.