Court of Appeal is among the highest civilian courts in Zambia, next only to Supreme Court Zambia. The Court of Appeal has made a name for itself with ethical judgments and quick delivery of cases. As a result, when Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached Court of Appeal for the Portland Cement Zambia case he was not disappointed. The case was originally registered at the Lusaka High Court and Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that the factory was illegally taken from him. After that, numerous court sessions took place and ultimately it took more than a decade for the Lusaka High Court to provide judgment for the factory. However, this judgment was extremely controversial as the judge at the Lusaka High Court announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. It was clear that this decision was misdirected and as a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached Court of Appeal.
The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final announcement for the case on 31st January 2019, mere nine months after the case was originally registered there. Compared to the average time taken by local courts to give case decisions, this decision was comparatively much quicker. As per this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury investments holds 58 percent shares at the Zambezi Portland Cement factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this shareholding pattern, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.
Furthermore, all allegations of forgery were discarded by the judge as it was announced that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions is a common practice in Zambia and even critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice. As such, all forgery allegations were discarded.