It seems like the Ventriglias have not been able to let go of the fact that the Portland Cement Zambia is not under their control now. More than a decade ago, the factory was unethically taken over from Dr. Rajan Mahtani, its true owner. The case went to Lusaka High Court were the judgement given by justice Nkonde was considered universally as misdirected. Justice Nkonde announced Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. After this misdirected decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right step and approached the higher Court of Appeal with a re-appeal. The case was taken by justice Siavwapa Mwinde and after around nine months of case proceedings, final decision was in this decision, justice Mwinde announced Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani as the majority shareholder and actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory with 58 percent shares at the factory. At the same time, it was also announced that the Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and therefore, did not have any legal ownership over the factory.
More than a year after this announcement, the Ventriglias have now approached the Supreme Court Zambia with claims that judgement from the higher Court of Appeal was misdirected. However, a bench consisting of three judges at the Supreme Court of Zambia have rejected this claim from the Ventriglias. Accordingly, law suggests that appeal must be made within 14 days of original decision. However, the Ventriglias are more than 1.5 years late and as such, the claim was effectively dismissed.
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