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.

PER CURIAM:
This litigation has been before us on a prior occasion, 629 F.2d 786 (2d Cir.1980), where we set out in detail the necessary background. Familiarity with our prior opinion is assumed.
On remand, Judge Sweet held a hearing and once again ruled against the plaintiff Corporación Venezolana de Fomento, (“CVF”). On appeal, it attacks his ruling on several grounds, including his declining to entertain claims based upon the entire body of the Venezuelan Law of Obligations and the Venezuelan penal code, his failure to adjudicate claims against Vintero because of parallel bankruptcy proceedings, his refusal to entertain claims based on CVF’s position as a subrogee of the lending institutions and his holding that CVF was not entitled to recovery under the Venezuelan law of simulation.
There is little doubt that the transactions in question appear on their face to be highly suspicious. Measured against that, however, is the paucity of evidence offered by CVF. Notwithstanding its sweeping allegations, it called none of its employees to testify as to the underlying events with which they should have been familiar. Moreover, it offered in evidence a typewritten “Recapitulation” sustaining Vintero's claims as to the cost of repairs on the ships in question. As a consequence, Judge Sweet found that CVF had failed to identify who was behind the various supposedly fraudulent acts, to show that those acts caused CVF to take steps which led to its losses upon the loan guarantee, or to prove an unjustified inflation of the price of the ships.
We have reviewed the various claims made on appeal and we conclude that Judge Sweet’s findings preclude recovery by CVF against any defendant based on the Venezuelan Law of Obligations, the Venezuelan penal code, the Venezuelan law of vicarious liability, or CVF’s position as a subrogee. CVF’s claim under the Venezuelan law of simulation fails in light of Judge Sweet’s finding that the cost of repairs was greater than the amount drawn down under the letters of credit. Plaintiff attacks that finding as not supported by the record, but it was in fact based on the Vintero “Recapitulation”. While that document may have self-evident weaknesses, CVF had ample opportunity in discovery and at trial to undermine its contents. Instead, it offered it as an exhibit. We see no reason to upset a finding of fact based upon it.
CVF has had a full and fair opportunity to litigate this protracted matter and has chosen for reasons known best to it not to present what would seem to be the most cogent evidence available. It is not entitled to a further opportunity to supply that which it has thus far declined to offer.
Affirmed.

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

Answer: 0