The Supreme Court Zambia recently made its final say on the surprising claim made by the Ventriglia family. This claim was pertaining to Portland Cement Zambia, a cement-manufacturing factory whose ownership is disputed for a long time. Even though the ownership pattern was finalised more than a decade ago, it was continuously being disputed for ownership. As a result of this dispute, Portland Cement Zambia factory suffered significant challenges and loss of investment as well as financing opportunities. Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the Lusaka High Court for quick decision but the decision that came a decade later was misdirected to say the least. In the month of May, 2018, justice Nkonde announced that the Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.

Dr. Rajan Mahtani was able to successfully challenge this decision at the higher Court of Appeal. On 31st January 2019, justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal reversed the previous decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani indeed is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. After this decision, the Ventriglia family once again challenged the decision from the higher Court of Appeal by taking it to the Supreme Court Zambia. A bench of three Supreme Court judges was established for evaluating this claim. These included judge Royda Kaoma, Judge Michael Musonda and Judge Mumba Malila. The Supreme Court bench revealed that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical legal requirement according to which all claims against previous court cases must be submitted without 14 days of the court decision itself. However, the claim by the Ventriglia family came only after 1.5 years of the decision. As such, the Supreme Court bench concluded that the claim by the Ventriglia family was beyond the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court Zambia and therefore, was effectively rejected by the SC.