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.

ROSS, Circuit Judge.
This case raises the question of whether a district judge may refuse to entertain all Rule ll(e)(lXB) and (C) plea agreements as a policy and practice. The petitioner Charles Yielding seeks a writ of mandamus from this court directing Judge Eisele to hear the plea agreement which Yielding and the government have negotiated and to exercise his discretion in deciding whether to accept it.
We have carefully considered the arguments petitioner Yielding makes, but have concluded that the writ should be denied.
Petitioner Yielding was indicted in July 1977 for alleged violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1006. Petitioner and the government thereafter negotiated a plea agreement, and on September 15, 1978, petitioner filed a motion asking the court to set a date for presentation of the plea agreement to the court. The government later joined the petitioner in this motion. The court denied the motion, stating that “[i]t is not now, nor has it been, the practice of this Court to consider such agreements, even though the Court is cognizant of the provisions of Rule 11(e), Rules of Criminal Procedure, which make such consideration optional.”
This question has previously been presented to the Fourth Circuit and was resolved on the basis of the clear legislative history of Rule 11(e). The history reflects Congress’ determination that no court should be compelled to permit any plea negotiations at all.
Addressing the issue in United States v. Jackson, 563 F.2d 1145 (4th Cir. 1977) the court states:
Subdivision (e) of Rule 11 spells out the guidelines to be observed by the court and counsel in plea agreement procedures, but the Rule leaves to the court the option of whether it will accept or reject the plea agreement. While the Rule is silent with respect to the authority of the court to decline to countenance any plea bargaining whatever, such a prerogative was recognized by the Congress in its consideration of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Act of 1975, P.L. 94-64, 89 Stat. 370. The proposed subdivision (e) had been criticized by some federal judges who read it to mean that consideration of plea agreements was mandatory. However, in their testimony before the Congressional committee, the members of the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules stressed that the Rule does not require that a court permit any form of plea agreement to be presented to it. On this point the report of the House Judiciary Committee stated:
“Rule 11(e) as proposed permits each federal court to decide for itself the extent to which it will permit plea negotiations to be carried on within its own jurisdiction. No court is compelled to permit any plea negotiations at all. Proposed Rule 11(e) regulates plea negotiations and agreements if, and to the extent that, the court permits such negotiations and agreements.”
(Emphasis Supplied). H.Rep. No. 94-247, 1975 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News p. 678. In our opinion each individual judge is free to decide whether, and to what degree, he will entertain plea bargains, and his refusal to consider any plea bargaining whatsoever will not vitiate a guilty plea which has otherwise been knowingly and voluntarily entered.
Id. at 1147-48 (footnote omitted). We agree with this rationale.
Petitioner Yielding relies chiefly on the “explicit” language of Rule 11(e)(2) that “[i]f a plea agreement has been reached by the parties, the Court shall, on the record, require the disclosure of the agreement in open court. * * * ” (Emphasis added.) This argument was made to the court in United States v. Stamey, 569 F.2d 805, 806 (4th Cir. 1978) and the court acknowledged that “from this it is arguable that the language used means that the trial court must at least consider the agreement in each instance in which a plea bargain has been struck.” Id. at 806. The argument failed in that case, however, because “[t]he legislative history of current Rule 11 * * * refutes [defendant’s] interpretation.” Id.
In a footnote to House Report No. 94-247 the Judiciary Committee writes:
Proposed Rule 11(e) has been criticized by some federal judges who read it to mandate the court to permit plea negotiations and the reaching of plea agreements. The Advisory Committee stressed during its testimony that the rule does not mandate that a court permit any form of plea agreement to be presented to it. See, e. g., the remarks of United States Circuit Judge William H. Webster in Hearings II, at 196. See also the exchange of correspondence between Judge Webster and United States District Judge Frank A. Kaufman in Hearings II, at 289-90.
H.R.Rep. No. 94-247, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 6, reprinted in [1975] U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, pp. 674, 678-79 n.7a (emphasis added).
Petitioner argues that the court should not consult legislative history in deciding this case, points out to the court the saluto-ry goals achieved by plea bargaining, and concludes “that it is patently unreasonable to totally reject plea agreements.” Analysis of the pros and eons of plea bargaining is not, however, the dispositive issue in this case; further, we do not agree that the language of the Rule is clear that the court must listen to the agreement. Since Rule 11(e)(2) gives the court the right to accept or reject the plea bargain, it would be a useless act to require a district judge to listen to the agreement when he has already decided to exercise his right of rejection under Rule 11(e)(2).
We conclude that the district court was under no duty to consider petitioner’s negotiated agreement, and accordingly deny the writ.
The Honorable Garnett Thomas Eisele, Chief Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
. In making this statement the court was referring to Rule 11(e)(1)(B) and (C) plea agreements, but not to “count” bargaining under subsection (A).

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

Answer: 1