Task: songer_numappel

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case. If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

HICKS, Circuit Judge.
Suit by appellant upon two War Risk Insurance policies. The question is, whether the court erred in sustaining appellee’s motion to dismiss upon the ground that the suit was barred by the statute of limitations.
The complaint alleged, that appellant became totally and permanently disabled within the life of the policy, on October 29, 1919. The statute began to run from that date. United States v. Towery, 306 U.S. 324, 331, 59 S.Ct. 522, 83 L.Ed. 678. Appellant had therefore until July 3, 1931, Sec. 19 of the World War Veterans’ Act, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445, to sue.
The. complaint alleged that appellant applied for benefits under the policies for total and permanent disability to the Veterans Bureau on March 26, 1931. The act provides “that this limitation is suspended for the period elapsing between the filing in the bureau of the claim sued upon and the denial of said claim by the direc-' tor. * * * ” Appellant therefore had ninety-nine days after the denial of his claim within which to sue. United States v. Green, 6 Cir., 84 F.2d 449.
The complaint alleged, that on or about November 11, 1932, appellant was notified by the Veterans Administration that on November 9, 1932, the Insurance Claims Council had refused his claim on the ground that the evidence submitted in connection therewith was insufficient to show that he became permanently and totally disabled for insurance purposes at the time of his discharge or at any time thereafter. In his first amended complaint appellant averred that he had received the following letter from the Director:
“Dear Sir: November 11, 1932.
“Your claim for payment of insurance on account of permanent and total disability from the date of your discharge from military service has received careful consideration in this office and you are informed that on November 9, 1932, the Insurance Claims Council rendered a decision to the effect that the evidence submitted in connection with your claim is not sufficient to show that you became permanent and total for insurance purposes at the time of your discharge nor at any time subsequent to your discharge. It will, therefore, be impossible for this Administration to make payment of any insurance to you.
“If you wish, you may consider this decision as final and in that event the suspension of the statute of limitations as provided in Section 19 of the World War Veterans Act, 1924, as amended, ceases from and after the date this letter reaches your present address. This may be treated as a letter of disagreement if you desire to institute suit in a proper court to recover on your insurance contract on the theory that you did become permanent and total for insurance purposes at a time when you had insurance in force with this Administration.
“Your compensation folder will now be decentralized to the Regional Office of this Administration at Louisville, Kentucky. All future correspondence by you in regard to your claim should, therefore, be directed to that office.
“Respectfully
“(Signed) IT. L. McCoy,
“Director of Insurance.”
We have italicized portions of this letter.
The denial of appellant’s claim by the Council and his notification thereof by the letter of the Director were both clear cut and decisive. The “disagreement” as a prerequisite to suit, existed. The decision of the Council made under the authority and direction of the Director, Sec. 5 of the World War Veterans’ Act, 38 U.S.C.A. § 426, was final and upon receipt of the letter appellant might have appealed to the Director had he exercised this right within sixty days therefrom.' Vet. Adm. Reg. 3204. Had he appealed, the , limitation would have been suspended during the period the claim was pending in the Veterans Administration. Howard v. United States, 6 Cir., 97 F.2d 987; Simmons v. United States, 4 Cir., 110 F.2d 296, 299. But, according to the allegations of the complaint, he made no effort to appeal until May 28, 1935, which was of course too late. Fie had the alternate remedy of suing within ninety-nine days after his receipt of the letter, which he admits was about the date upon which it was written; but he did not commence his action until April 30, 1937, and the bar of the statute had long since fallen.
We are not concerned with the recitations of the complaint touching appellant’s efforts to renew his claim after it was barred (Ball v. United States, 6 Cir., 101 F.2d 272, 274; Neely v. United States, 4 Cir., 115 F.2d 448, 452); nor with the effect of the Act of June 29, 1936, Ch. 867, Sec. 404, 49 Stat. 2034, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445d, which provides that in addition to the suspension of the limitation as heretofore indicated, the claimant shall have ninety days from the date of the mailing of the notice of denial within which to sue, because such provision has no application to a barred suit. Dowell v. United States, 5 Cir., 86 F.2d 120, 122.
Judgment affirmed.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case? Answer with a number.
Answer:

Answer: 1