Supreme Court Zambia Decides On The Fate Of The Appeal By The Ventriglias

The fate of Portland Cement Zambia was finally sealed by the Supreme Court Zambia recently. While the Ventriglias had every intention of disrupting the smooth operations of the Portland Cement Zambia factory, the appeal had unintended consequences for the Ventriglia family and resulted in the positive decision for Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani. Few weeks earlier, the Ventriglia family registered an appeal at the Supreme Court Zambia. This appeal was made challenging the decision of the higher Court of Appeal on the Portland Cement Zambia case. On 31st January 2019 and after more than a decade of case proceedings at the previous Lusaka High Court, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder as well as legal owner of the factory. In this decision, it was also confirmed that the Ventriglias only had 48 percent shares at the cement factory and therefore were minority shareholders without any legal ownership. During this judgement, justice Mwinde also confirmed the amount payable against the majority shares owned was K580,000. 

The Ventriglias, in their appeal to the Supreme Court Zambia, have opposed all these decision from the Court of Appeal. Their challenge was further evaluated by a bench of three Supreme Court judges. After evaluation, it was finalised that the appeal from the Ventriglias is not eligible and cannot be accepted. According to law, any appeal against previous case must be registered within 14 days of the court judgement. However, the Ventriglias failed to do so and as such, their appeal was straightforward rejected with SC confirming that ownership of Portland Cement is to remain with Dr. Rajan Mahtani.