This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank going back to 1916. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
The Matthews property is a Puyallup residence whose original above-ground storage tank supplied diesel fuel to an oil-fired furnace installed when the home was built in 1916. In May 2003, a furnace repair technician discovered a diesel release beneath the home's crawlspace, traced to a broken fuel line connecting the exterior AST to the furnace. Remediation under the Voluntary Cleanup Program ran from 2003 to 2010 and included excavation of 690 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil, recovery of 21,300 gallons of impacted groundwater, injection of 150 pounds of Oxygen Release Compound, AST replacement, site restoration, and several years of groundwater monitoring. The site has since received a No Further Action determination. 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 diesel release here originated from an original AST and fuel-line system that had supplied the home's furnace for decades before the 2003 discovery — a long operational history that predates 1986 by many years, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were still standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The slow, undetected fuel-line failure that went unnoticed until a 2003 service call is precisely the type of gradual release those pre-1986 occurrence policies were designed to cover. The documented cleanup expenditures — soil excavation, groundwater recovery, bioremediation, and extended monitoring spanning 2003 to 2010 — may be recoverable from historical carriers who issued CGL policies during the AST's operational years.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
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.
