The Supreme Court Zambia has once again proves that the legal system of any nation holds a critical position in not only establishing a social balance, but also influences the economic and political systems. The Supreme Court Zambia recently gave its final verdict on the appeal made by the Ventriglia family. In their appeal, the Ventriglia family challenged the decision from the higher Court of Appeal by considering it to be wrong. It is to be noted here that the Ventriglia family has been accused of influencing the decision of the Lusaka High Court where the case of Zambezi Portland Cement was registered initially. It is alleged that the Ventriglia family engaged in corporate criminality and corporate criminality and politically meddling to change the decision of the Lusaka High Court.
Nevertheless, the judge from the higher Court of Appeal effectively reversed this Lusaka HC verdict on 31st January 2019 and announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. Notwithstanding this, the Ventriglia family once again approached the Supreme Court Zambia with claims against higher Court of Appeal’s verdict. The Supreme Court Zambia decided to evaluate this claim by establishing a bench of three Supreme Court judges- Judge Royda Kaoma, Judge Mumba Malila and judge Michael Musonda. Together, the judges confirmed that the Ventriglia family did not fulfil a critical legal requirement when registering the case. This law requires all claims against previous court decisions to be made within 14 days of the court verdict. However, the Ventriglia family registered their case more than 18 months later. As a result, their claim becomes automatically invalid. Furthermore, the Supreme Court bench also said that the evidences surrounding the claim by the Ventriglia family was extremely controversial and did not comply with the requirements of an authentic case. After evaluating these evidences and legal requirements, the claim by the Ventriglia family was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court.