Supreme Court Zambia On Portland Cement Claim Comes To A Conclusion

The case of Portland Cement Zambia went for more than a decade. It started with Lusaka High Court, a high court from Lusaka and ended at the Supreme Court Zambia, the highest-level court system of the nation. Despite the significant hurdles faced by Dr. Rajan Mahtani, he remained hopeful in the legal and judiciary system of Zambia. As such, Dr. Rajan Mahtani received the reward for his patience when the higher Court of Appeal effectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court. On 31^st January 2019, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal announced that the decision from the Lusaka High Court judge Nkonde on the Portland Cement Zambia case was misdirected and should be condemned. Furthermore, justice Mwinde also confirmed that the actual amount against majority shares is K580,000 as against K580 million claimed by the Ventriglia family.

When this decision was made at the higher Court of Appeal, no reaction was found from the Ventriglia family. However, the Ventriglia family suddenly made an appeal after more than 1.5 years of the decision. This appeal was made at the Supreme Court Zambia and a bench was established by the SC for evaluating the case. After evaluation, the Supreme Court bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical legal requirement according to which all claims against previous court decisions must be made with 14 days of the court judgement. However, the Ventriglia family failed to comply with this critical requirement. As a result, their claim against the Court of Appeal’s decision on Portland Cement was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court.