After Higher Court Of Appeal, The Supreme Court Zambia Turns Down The Claim By The Ventriglias

After the Lusaka High Court, every time the Ventriglia family attempted to take over Portland Cement’s ownership, they met with failure. The decision from the Lusaka High Court on Portland Cement was highly unethical and as a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the higher Court of Appeal. Justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investment is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory and Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited are only minority shareholders with 42 percent shares and without any ownership over the factory. In this manner, the higher Court of Appeal completely reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court. 

Then came the Supreme Court Zambia. The Ventriglia family approached the Supreme Court Zambia claiming that the decision from the higher Court of Appeal was misled. They also claimed that the actual amount against majority shares of Portland Cement is K580 million and not K580,000 as concluded by the higher Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court Zambia evaluated this claim by establishing a bench of three Supreme Court judges. These judges were judge Mumba Malila, Judge Royda Kaoma and Judge Michael Musonda. After looking into all evidences and legal regulations, the bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical requirement according to which any claim against previous court decision must be made with 14 days of the court decision itself. In this case, the Ventriglia family made the claim at SC only after 1.5 years of decision from Court of Appeal. Furthermore, the circumstances surrounding the claim by the Ventriglia family was questionable. As such, the Supreme Court Zambia evaluated these aspects and finally concluded that the claim by Ventriglia family should be rejected.