Task: songer_appnatpr

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.
Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons". 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.

ALDRICH, Chief Judge.
This is an appeal from an order of the district court for the District of Puerto Rico refusing to pass upon a motion to remand, and staying further proceedings pending the outcome of another action between some of the parties. The present suit was commenced in the insular court by Jose Morales Serrano and wife, citizens of Puerto Rico, hereafter Morales in the singular, against Playa Associates, Inc, a New York corporation, Roth, a citizen of New York, and one Christiansen. Morales asserted the giving of an option to Christiansen to buy certain land, for which Christiansen had made a down-payment of $20,000, of which $10,000 was to be returned if the sale was not consummated. Christian-sen’s rights under the contract were allegedly assigned to Roth, and by him to Playa, and the option not having been exercised, Morales asked for a determination of which defendant was entitled to the $10,000 refund, deposited by him in court. Playa and Roth removed the action to the federal court. Christiansen did not join in the removal, but not having been served, this was of no consequence. Pullman Co. v. Jenkins, 1939, 305 U.S. 534, 540-541, 59 S.Ct. 347, 83 L.Ed. 334. Playa and Roth accompanied their answer with a counterclaim, alleging that the sale was not effected because of Morales’ default, and seeking substantial damages. In addition, Playa, alone, filed a separate federal district court action, hereafter Playa’s suit, against Morales, seeking the same relief.
Morales moved to remand the present case on the ground that the amount in controversy did not exceed $10,000, and the further ground that it now appeared that Christiansen had also assigned part of his rights to Piedrahita Realty, Inc., a Puerto Rican corporation, which, accordingly, was an indispensable party whose presence would destroy diversity jurisdiction. By separate motion under F.R. Civ.P. 19 Morales sought to join Piedra-hita as a defendant. In declining to pass on these motions, and, instead, ordering a stay on June 12, 1967, the court said,
“The allegations contained in Civil No. 167-67 [Playa’s suit] clearly set out the fundamental controversy between the parties herein. Resolution of that case will resolve the basic issues involved in this case, free of the many complex issues concerning jurisdictional amount, necessary or indispensable parties, and other aspects of federal-state court relations.”
Morales’ appeal, although suggesting intricate questions, is without merit. In the first place, a district court’s order staying proceedings in a case before it does not normally attain the status of an interlocutory decision within 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a), and is therefore not appeala-ble. Ephraim Freightways, Inc. v. Red Ball Motor Freight, Inc., 10 Cir., 1967, 376 F.2d 40; Jackson Brewing Co. v. Clarke, 5 Cir., 1962, 303 F.2d 844; Ferguson v. Tabah, 2 Cir., 1961, 288 F.2d 665; International Nickel Co. v. Martin J. Barry, Inc., 4 Cir., 1953, 204 F.2d 583. To this Morales urges that failure to remand an action where federal jurisdiction is lacking is tantamount to the issuance of an injunction against further proceedings in the state court in violation of 28 U.S.C. § 2283, and is appeala-ble as such. The answer to this is that the hypothesis is wrong. The court has not enjoined Morales from proceeding in the insular court. He may start a new action there at any time, and the pendency of the federal case is not a matter in abatement. Hayes Industries, Inc. v. Caribbean Sales Associates, Inc., 1 Cir., 1967, 387 F.2d 498.
The question comes whether we should treat the abortive appeal as a petition for mandamus, International Nickel Co. v. Martin J. Barry, Inc., supra. Passing the fact that on a petition for mandamus we cannot decide the issues extensively argued here on the merits, but can only require the district court to do so, In re Henneman, 1 Cir., 1943, 137 F.2d 627, a petition for mandamus is an extraordinary writ, rarely to be invoked. Bankers Life & Cas. Co. v. Holland, 1953, 346 U.S. 379, 74 S.Ct. 145, 98 L.Ed. 106. Even on the assumption that the district court’s stated reasons for its order of June 12 were erroneous, we cannot see how Morales has been substantially harmed by the order. It is just as open to him to move under Rule 19 to add Piedrahita as a party in Playa’s suit as it would be here were the court to consider it.
Correspondingly, or alternatively, Morales can institute a new declaratory action in the insular court, this time naming Piedrahita as well as Playa and Roth, and if Piedrahita is, in fact, a vital party, there will not be complete diversity, and the other defendants should not be able to remove.
While we make no final decision as to any of these matters, the merits, as we have already pointed out, not being before us, we are satisfied that Morales has in no way made the exceptional showing warranting the allowance of a petition for mandamus. We will not so treat the appeal, and the appeal itself is dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction.
It is true that in this instance the $10,-000 deposit is now, presumably, in the district court. Defendants would seem to be in no position, however, to object to the voluntary dismissal of this suit if they continue to insist on its not being tried. If they do object, or if defendants remove a second action and ask to have it stayed, it will be time enough to consider whether the purpose and effect is to violate section 2283.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons"? Answer with a number.
Answer:

Answer: 2