Docudrama | A Cumberland businessman takes on counties' claim to registry records
Photo/Robert M. Cook
John Simpson of MacImage Maine sees big potential for his online registry business if the counties cooperate
All John Simpson wanted when he started his business 14 years ago was to create an online registry of deeds where people could go for the documents they need.
He never dreamed he would become a lightning rod at the center of a legal battle that could determine future public access to registry of deeds records in Maine.
“Change for most people is scary,” he concedes of the brouhaha surrounding his push to create a one-stop shop for statewide registry records. In November 2009, Simpson filed suit against 12 Maine counties to force them to make their records available.
The effort has drawn the ire of the 12 counties and generated two bills in Augusta that would exempt registry of deeds documents from the state’s Freedom of Access law. He says he hopes two bills, LD 1554 and LD 1714, are defeated.
Meanwhile, his business hangs in the balance as this battle over access to the records plays out in the courts.
Simpson’s business, MacImage Maine, is based in his Cumberland home, overlooking Casco Bay. Since 1996, it has hosted the Hancock Registry of Deeds information online. The information, critical for real estate professionals, lawyers, municipal clerks and others who need accurate information regarding real estate transactions, was available to users who pay a fee to copy the documents; in turn, the county paid him a fee to digitize its records and host the site. In 2007, Simpson says his company earned $126,000. Over the five-year period he digitized the county’s records, his company earned close to half a million dollars, he says.
But in 2008, a new registrar took over and didn’t want to continue providing the documents to Simpson to digitize and make available through his website. Simpson, who holds a law degree from the University of Vermont, filed suit in Cumberland County Superior Court, saying Hancock County’s records are public and should be available to him at a reasonable cost. A judge concurred.
Now, Simpson wants to expand his site, www.registryofdeeds.com, to include online information from the other 15 counties, several of which object, fearing a loss of revenue from their own individual pricing structures and host arrangements.“It’s a control issue,” Simpson says.
But Simpson, who intends to share his revenues with the counties, sees a win-win. By creating a statewide, one-stop shop for registry data, Simpson says the counties would end up generating more revenue than they do now and his company could earn up to $2 million annually.
If his business model involved taking revenue away from the county register of deeds offices, Simpson says, “that strategy simply wouldn’t work.” By charging users 75 cents a page for copies versus the $1.50-$3 per page that many registries customarily charge, more people will use the site, generating more revenue for him and the counties.“We’d get it (increased revenues) by increasing the size of the pie,” Simpson says. “We’re truly creating something of value.”
At one time, MacImage Maine had nine full-time employees and an office in downtown Portland. If Simpson wins his current lawsuit against the 12 counties in Cumberland County Superior Court, he says he could hire as many as 50 people to digitize the records at the other county registries. If he loses, he could go out of business.
Simpson says aside from his business interests, he wants to centralize information to remove the leeway counties have to charge whatever they want for the documents.
“That violates the spirit of the state’s Freedom of Access law,” he says.
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