This property has a documented history as a automobile dealership going back to 1961. 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.

Dealership operations at this property date to at least 1961, and the historical underground storage tank — documented to have stored leaded gasoline — was installed in 1964, more than two decades before occurrence-based CGL policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions. Leaded gasoline storage is itself a pre-1986 qualifier, directly tying the contamination origin to an era when carriers routinely issued policies with no meaningful pollution carve-out. The documented remediation expenditures here — tank and piping removal, large-scale soil excavation, groundwater recovery, and years of ongoing monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers active during those operational decades may still be obligated to fund.

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.