The Supreme Court Zambia recently announced its final decision on the claim by the Ventriglias. The Ventriglias recently challenged the decision from the higher Court of Appeal on Portland Cement Zambia case. On 31st January 2019, the higher Court of Appeal gave its final decision on the long-pending Portland Cement Zambia case. In this decision, justice Mwinde reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court in which Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. Justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the Portland Cement factory and is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. It was also released that Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Furthermore, justice Mwinde also changed the amount payable by Finsbury Investments against the shares owned of Portland Cement from K580 million to K580,000 based on re-denomination of the Currency Act-2012.
After more than 1.5 years of this decision, the Ventriglias challenged this decision from the higher Court of Appeal. In this appeal, the Ventriglia family claimed that the decision of higher Court of Appeal to give majority shareholding to the Finsbury Investments was incorrect. They also challenged the decision of payment amount finalised by the higher Court of Appeal judge and demanded the court to further revise the decision to align with the Lusaka High Court’s decision. This appeal was then evaluated by the Supreme Court by establishing a bench of three judges- judge Mumba Malila, judge Michael Musonda and judge Royda Kaoma. After evaluation, it was found that the appeal by the Ventriglias was not legitimate as law requires claims to be launched within 14 days of the initial judgement. As such, the Supreme Court does not have any jurisdiction in this case which is also considered as legally flawed. As such, this appeal from the Ventriglias was rejected by the Supreme Court.