This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1968. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Precision Pattern, Inc. has operated an industrial fabrication and machining facility at this Tacoma property since approximately 1968, specializing in composite tooling, precision machining, and steel and aluminum modeling within a large masonry light-industrial building. Contamination originated from a leaking 1,325-gallon underground storage tank; remediation under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included pumping and disposal of approximately 1,200 gallons of oil and water mixture in 2004, excavation of the UST along with 30 tons of impacted soil and 300 gallons of diesel in 2005, and multi-year groundwater monitoring through installed wells in 2007 and 2008. Ecology has granted a No Further Action determination for the site. 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 underground storage tank that caused contamination here was in service well before 1986 — the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Industrial operations at this property began around 1968, meaning the facility operated under pre-1986 CGL policies for close to two decades before the pollution-exclusion era arrived. The documented remediation expenditures — tank removal, soil excavation, diesel recovery, and multi-year groundwater monitoring — were all incurred to address a release tied to those pre-1986 operations, and the historical carriers who issued CGL policies during that window may still be obligated to recover those cleanup costs.
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.
