Aaronson and Others v Ghadieh and Others    Privy Council – Palestine – Land settlement – Jurisdiction of settlement officer – Right of
appeal from decision of settlement officer – Palestine Land Settlement Ordinance 1928.
A settlement order was issued under the Palestine Land Settlement Ordinance, s 3, that a
settlement of rights in land and registration thereof should be effected in the area included
within the boundaries of, inter alia, the village of Hudeira in the Haifa sub-district and of the
lands of Attil and Zeita in the Tulkarem sub-district. A settlement officer was duly appointed
and a preliminary notice issued of the intended settlement and registration of rights in the
village of Hudeira. A dispute arose with regard to certain land known as Khor al Wasa’, of
which the appellants were registered in the land registry of Haifa as absolute owners. The
entry in the registry described the area as being within the village of Hudeira. The settlement
officer found that the area in dispute was included within the boundaries of Zeita and/or Attil
musha’ lands, and he ordered that the entries in the Haifa land registry relating to the area in
dispute be separated from the entries in respect of the lands of Hudeira, and that an
observation be made in respect of such entries that in accordance with the judgment of the
settlement officer those lands were held to be situated within the musha’ lands of Zeita and/or
Attil and were recorded as such in the Tulkarem land registry, and that a corresponding entry
be recorded in the Tulkarem land registry. The appellants appealed. The competency of the
appeal was challenged on the ground that the decision was not one “as to any right to land”
within the Land Settlement Ordinance 1928, s 56(1). The Land Court upheld the competency
of the appeal, and dismissed the appeal. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the appeal was held
not to be competent and the appellants’ application was dismissed. The appellants appealed to
the Privy Council:—