Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks Co (1856) 156 ER 1047
Tort; Negligence; breach of a duty of care; foreseeability of harm; reasonable person.
The concept of a reasonable person was explained in this case, the facts of which need not concern us.
Alderson B said:
"Negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do".
The "reasonable man" is also sometimes called the "man on the Clapham omnibus", a phrase which is meant to suggest an average, ordinary person of no special distinction. Deane J has suggested, as an Australian equivalent, "the hypothetical person on the hypothetical Bondi tram". (Papatonakis v Australian Telecommunications Commission (1985) 156 CLR 7 at 36).
Although the phrase 'reasonable man' is often encountered in older cases, it is more usual now to use the gender-neutral phrase 'reasonable person'.