This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1981. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.

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 industrial operations and waste accumulation at this property began approximately five years before 1986, the dividing line after which Commercial General Liability policies began routinely excluding pollution claims. Petroleum and solvent contamination now documented in groundwater and surface water traces to decades of waste oil handling and storage that predates that exclusion shift. The cleanup costs this property now faces — site investigation, remedial design, and remediation of contaminated soil, groundwater, and adjacent surface water — could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose occurrence-based CGL policies were in force during the years the contamination originated.

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.