This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1946. 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.

TCE degreasing and AST operations at this site began in 1946 — four decades before the 1986 threshold at which occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies gave way to forms with effective pollution exclusions. The contamination profile here — TCE and PCE in soil and groundwater alongside petroleum hydrocarbons from storage tanks — reflects precisely the kind of long-running industrial release those pre-1986 policies were written to cover. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to Spencer Industries during its fifty years of active operations may be obligated both to recover documented remediation expenditures and to fund the cleanup work that remains ahead.

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.