The majority’s statement that it has resolved the “linguistic problem” with a “straightforward, common-sense approach” is, however, certainly true. The attempt is earnest and well-intentioned. It makes the statute less illogical and more sensible. But we are not modern-day alchemists with a roving commission to turn legislative lead into judicial gold. We cannot, in the name of common sense, redefine the word party to include the word agent ; that is a task for the Legislature to undertake if it chooses. The response to the Supreme Court’s remand should not be to undertake the legislative task of amending the statute but rather to give the plain and ordinary meaning to the undefined statutory term “party.” If one does so, then I believe the resolution to the problem at hand is to hold that Nippa, while required to file an affidavit of merit signed by a physician, was not required, when she sued only Botsford, to file an affidavit signed by a board-certified specialist. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an absurd result and it applies the law as the Legislature enacted it.

Nippa v. Botsford General Hospital (Mich. Ct. App. 2003) 257 Mich. App. 387, 410-11