This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1963. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property has been in continuous industrial use since at least 1963, first as Excavators, Inc. and later as Western Marine Electronics, Inc. (WESTMAR), which occupies the site for marine electronics development, engineering, and manufacturing — operations that include a machine shop, a painting room with spray booth, production assembly areas, and a sonar testing trough. Contamination sources identified at the site include four underground storage tanks removed in 1989, a subgrade sump found to contain waste liquid, sludge, solvents, coolants, lead, and cadmium, and an adjacent former landfill. Cleanup work to date has included removal and disposal of sump waste and soil cuttings, with approximately 2,880 cubic yards of TPH-contaminated soil identified for future excavation; an environmental and restrictive covenant and multi-year periodic reviews are ongoing. 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 contamination at this site — petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, lead, and cadmium — traces directly to industrial operations that were underway more than two decades before 1986, including USTs that were in the ground and actively used well before their 1989 removal. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to operators during that pre-1986 window carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law and remain enforceable today. The remediation expenditures already incurred — sump cleanout, soil removal, long-term monitoring — as well as the substantial future costs of excavating 2,880 cubic yards of contaminated soil and installing groundwater monitoring infrastructure represent liabilities that historical carriers may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.
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.
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.
