This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank going back to 1957. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This residential property has been in use since approximately 1957, when the house was placed on the site along with an underground heating oil tank of similar vintage used for house heating. In February 2015, a slow leak of heating oil — red dyed diesel — from the tank or its supply lines was discovered, prompting spill containment using earthen dams, absorbent booms, hay bales, and sorbent pads; the property owner subsequently pumped out 200 gallons of oil from the tank, added 50 pounds of absorbent material, decommissioned the tank, and cleaned the drain pipes. After 2.5 years of post-incident monitoring with no further sheen observed, the site 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 underground heating oil tank at this property was installed and in continuous operation for roughly six decades before its decommissioning — the bulk of that history predating 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies had no effective pollution exclusion. The contamination here was not a sudden spill but a slow, ongoing release from aging residential infrastructure, the kind of gradual discharge those pre-1986 policies were written to address. Historical carriers who issued CGL coverage to the property owner during the tank's long operational window may remain obligated to recover the costs of containment, decommissioning, and multi-year monitoring that were incurred to close this site.
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.
