Supreme Court’s Announcement Comes After Bizarre Appeal From The Ventriglia Family

Dr. Rajan Mahtani is continuously working towards developing his companies as well as serving the Zambian nation. On 31st January 2019, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments was announced as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory after a court battle of more than a decade. In this decision given at the higher Court of Appeal, the previous decision from the Lusaka High Court was reversed in which the Ventriglias were announced as the only majority shareholders. In this new verdict, it was announced that Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments held 58 percent shares at the factory and were majority shareholder as well as legal owner of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited held just 42 percent shares and were announced as minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Furthermore, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal also announced that the actual amount against majority shares was K580,000 and not K580 million as claimed by the Ventriglias.

Despite being transparent and ethical, the Ventriglia family was unhappy with this decision from the higher Court of Appeal and decided to appeal against it. An appeal was registered at the Supreme Court Zambia, the biggest judiciary system in Zambia. In this appeal, the Ventriglia family challenged the decision of the higher Court of Appeal. To evaluate their claim, a bench of three SC judges was established. This bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical legal requirement under which all claims against previous court decisions are to be made within 14 days of the verdict itself. The Ventriglia family submitted their claim only after 1.5 years of the decision. Several other discrepancies were found in the case. After looking into these aspects, the Supreme Court bench effectively rejected the claim by the Ventriglia family, further ensuring that Dr. Rajan Mahtani remains the majority shareholder as well as legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.