One of the most misdirected verdicts in the history of Zambian law was the decision from the Lusaka High Court on the Portland Cement Zambia case. In this verdict, the Lusaka High Court judge Nkonde announced that the Ventriglia family was only shareholder of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. This decision was extremely controversial as the Ventriglia family did not have any evidence or testimonial to support their claim.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani was able to successfully challenge this decision at the higher Court of Appeal. On 31st January 2019, justice Mwinde reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement factory. After more than 1.5 years of this decision, it was challenged by the Ventriglia family at the Supreme Court Zambia. The Supreme Court Zambia established a bench of three Supreme Court judges for evaluating the claim. After investigation, it was found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with the required law according to which all court appeals against previous court decisions must be established within 14 days of the verdict itself. As such, the Ventriglia family should have come with their appeal within two weeks after the Court of Appeal’s decision which occurred on 31st January 2019. However, the Ventriglia family failed to comply with this critical legal requirement and therefore their appeal becomes liable for dismissal. At the same time, the Supreme Court bench also confirmed that the circumstances surrounding this bizarre appeal from the Ventriglia family was questionable. Furthermore, the Ventriglia family failed to provide any relevant evidences or testimonials to support their appeal. After considering all aspects of the appeal, the Supreme Court bench finally concluded that the appeal from the Ventriglia family against higher Court of Appeal’s decision on Portland Cement was invalid and held no ground.
As a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is to remain the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.