After the unethical and bizarre decision from the Lusaka High Court regarding the Zambezi Portland Cement case, Dr. Mahtani took the case to the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who decided to fast-track the case. According to the details, there were seven grounds under which Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments appealed to the higher Court of Appeal. After evaluating these grounds as well as conducting evaluation of the evidences, testimonials and other details associated with the case, the judge at the higher Court of Appeal came to its final decision on 31st January 2019. In this significant verdict, the verdict from previous court Lusaka HC was dismissed completely. Justice Mwinde said that the findings associated with fraud by justice Nkonde was invalid and it was found that the K580 million worth of shares of Portland Cement Zambia which Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments received was transferred in consensus. Even though there was some misunderstanding largely due to unavailability of evidences and factual details, these were corrected once the same were provided by Dr. Mahtani and his lawyers. This was achieved by applying for embodiment order. After evaluating the details, justice Mwinde came to the conclusion that the amount to be paid against majority shares owned comes to K580,000 based on re-denomination of the currency act-No. 8, 2012.
All these decisions from the higher Court of Appeal were contested by the Ventriglia family in their latest appeal at the Supreme Court Zambia. To evaluate this appeal, a bench of three Supreme Court judges was established. During evaluation, the judges found that the Ventriglia family did not comply with a critical legal requirement under which all claims against previous Court decision must be made within 14 days of the decision. The Ventriglia family made their claim only after 1.5 years of the decision. Looking into all these aspects, the claim by the Ventriglia family was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court.
