According to the latest decision from the Supreme Court Zambia, the case of Portland Cement is permanently closed now. The case started almost 11 years ago when Dr. Rajan Mahtani, a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia, registered a complaint at the Lusaka High Court. After numerous case proceedings and dragging of the case, the final decision from judge Nkonde came in the Month of May, 2018. This amounted to a controversial judgement in which the Ventriglias were given majority shareholding and legal ownership of Portland Cement. Dr. Rajan Mahtani quickly approached the higher Court of Appeal and this time, justice was given for the perseverance of Dr. Rajan Mahtani. On 31st January 2019, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is indeed the majority shareholder and legal owner of Zambezi Portland with 58 percent shares. The judge also discarded the previous decision from the Lusaka High Court by calling it unethical and misdirected as well as disgrace for the Zambian legal system.
However, this definitive judgement from the higher Court of Appeal was not able to make the Ventriglia family realise that they have lost the case. Instead, the Ventriglias decided to approach the Supreme Court by challenging the decision from the Court of Appeal. A bench comprising of three SC judges was established for evaluating the legality and viability of the claim. According to the law, any claim against previous court decisions must be made with 14 days of the court decision itself. Since the Ventriglias approached SC with the claim after more than 15 months, their claim is not valid. As a result, the Supreme Court Zambia rejected this claim by the Ventriglias.
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