<P> The phrase was first put to legal use in a reported judgment by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case , McQuire v. Western Morning News . He attributed it to Lord Bowen , said to have coined it as junior counsel defending the Tichborne Claimant case in 1871 . Brewer 's also lists this as a possible first use . </P>
<P> The phrase was first put to legal use in a reported judgment by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case , McQuire v. Western Morning News . He attributed it to Lord Bowen , said to have coined it as junior counsel defending the Tichborne Claimant case in 1871 . Brewer 's also lists this as a possible first use . </P>
who said the man on the clapham omnibus
who said the man on the clapham omnibus
Sir Richard Henn Collins MR
Sir Richard Henn Collins MR