Task: songer_majvotes

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the number of judges who voted in favor of the disposition favored by the majority. Judges who concurred in the outcome but wrote a separate concurring opinion are counted as part of the majority. For most cases this variable takes the value "2" or "3." However, for cases decided en banc the value may be as high as 15. Note: in the typical case, a list of the judges who heard the case is printed immediately before the opinion. If there is no indication that any of the judges dissented and no indication that one or more of the judges did not participate in the final decision, then all of the judges listed as participating in the decision are assumed to have cast votes with the majority. The number of majority votes recorded includes district judges or other judges sitting by designation who participated on the appeals court panel. If there is an indication that a judge heard argument in the case but did not participate in the final opinion (e.g., the judge died before the decision was reached), that judge is not counted in the number of majority votes.

PER CURIAM.
Appellant’s decedent, Otho Swain, worked as a deck hand aboard the vessel of defendant-appellee. On January 23, 1948, the vessel was tied up at a lock in the Ohio River. At 5:20 p.m. the same day, Swain was observed boarding-her. There was evidence that the ship’s cook reported to the captain that Swain was argumentative and intoxicated. The captain himself ate dinner with Swain and conversed with him. Pie testified that he smelled liquor on decedent’s, breath and observed him, in the words-of the district court, “under the influence of alcohol to a slight degree.” Decedent Swain was last seen alive in the dining room. A subsequent search of the vessel proved fruitless, and his body was discovered some months later in the Ohio River, the victim of drowning. This suit, brought under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688, and tried to the district court without a jury, is predicated on the allegation that the captain’s negligence in failing to examine decedent and otherwise care for Swain as his ward was the proximate cause of Swain’s death. Aside from the question of the captain’s duty under these circumstances, the district court made the following finding of fact:
“There is no evidence to indicate that the decedent’s condition was the proximate cause of his death.”
This finding was certainly a permissible inference under the circumstances. The record before us is devoid of any evidence of a causal conection between; decedent’s condition and his death, and-oral argument did not indicate that, there was such evidence. We are unable to say, therefore, that the district, court’s finding was clearly erroneous,, or that we are left with any firm impression that it was wrong.
The judgment of the district court, will be affirmed.

Question: What is the number of judges who voted in favor of the disposition favored by the majority?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
E. 4
F. 5
G. 6
H. 7
I. 8
J. 9
K. 10
L. 11
M. 12
N. 13
O. 14
P. 15
Q. Not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: D