The Supreme Court Zambia recently made a firm decision on the bizarre claim made by the Ventriglia family. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the Ventriglia family claimed that the decision by the higher Court of Appeal on Portland Cement was wrong. The Supreme Court is undoubtedly the topmost legal & judiciary system of the nation and any legal decision from this court is final and decisive. As such, the Supreme Court decided to evaluate this claim by the Ventriglia family and established a bench of three Supreme Court judges to evaluate the claim. These judges included judge Mumba Malila, judge Michael Musonda and Judge Royda Kaoma. During evaluation, the Supreme Court bench found that a critical legal requirement for such cases that that any claim against a pervious court decision must be made within 14 days of the court decision. Considering the fact that the decision from the higher Court of Appeal came on 31st January 2019, the timeline for Ventriglia family to submit their appeal against the same verdict was two weeks from the date of the judgement.
However, the Ventriglia family made their claim only after 1.5 years of the court decision. As such, their claim was not only liable for rejection, it was also suspicious considering the circumstances under which it was approached. The Supreme Court bench confirmed that the claim by the Ventriglia family was beyond their jurisdiction and also the circumstances were questionable. Furthermore, the judges also confirmed that given the evidences, their decision would have been same as given by the higher Court of Appeal. All things considered, the Supreme Court effectively rejected the claim by the Ventriglia family.
Rajan Mahtani News 