man on the Clapham omnibus

Meaning

Noun

• Any ordinary person; everyman.
• Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; everyman.

Origin

• First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News, who attributed it to Lord Bowen.