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.

Opinion:
Leonard L. EDSALL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PENN CENTRAL TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 72-1995.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Argued April 20, 1973.
Decided May 22, 1973.
John Ruffalo, Youngstown, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellant.
Thomas R. Skulina, Cleveland, Ohio, for defendant-appellee; John F. Dolan, Cleveland, Ohio, of counsel.
Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and McCREE, and LIVELY, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
We consider the appeal of a Federal Employers’ Liability Act claimant whose complaint was dismissed without prejudice on September 6, 1972, because neither he nor his counsel of record appeared in court to proceed with the trial of his case when it was called on September 5. The trial date had been set in an order filed by the District Judge on July 21, 1972, and the order further provided:
No additional continuance will be granted, and it is FURTHER ORDERED that in the event John Ruf-falo, Sr. is unable to proceed on the date heretofore indicated, replacement counsel will be prepared to proceed as aforesaid.
Although the order of dismissal purported to be without prejudice, the three-year statute of limitations (45 U.S.C. § 56) had run on one of plaintiff’s claims, and the statute ran on plaintiff’s other claim two weeks later.
Appellant’s counsel argues that he did not appear to try the case because he had been ill and had so apprised the court in July. He claims that he endeavored to telephone the District Judge a few days before the trial date but that the Judge was unavailable. (This period included the Labor Day weekend.)
We regard the attorney’s efforts as totally insufficient. He could have but did not write to the court to request a continuance. He could have but did not ask another lawyer to answer the call of the case to explain his absence and to request a continuance. He could have but did not arrange for his client to be present to explain the indisposition of his lawyer and to request a continuance. He could have but did not obtain replacement counsel to try the case in his stead (he did manage to secure replacement counsel by October 1).
The failure to accord opposing counsel and the court this minimum consideration and courtesy in these days of crowded calendars would ordinarily have fully justified the drastic sanction of dismissal of the cause. However, there are special circumstances here. The record does not indicate that Mr. Edsall knew of the requirement in the July 21 order that he be prepared to proceed with replacement counsel if Mr. Ruffalo should have been unavailable, and in the absence of the affirmative showing of such knowledge we are reluctant to punish the client for the behavior of the lawyer. Further, plaintiff’s claims are now time-barred and the dismissal thus effectively prevents plaintiff from ever having his day in court. And, the relief he seeks is based on a remedial and humanitarian statute that was specially enacted by Congress to afford relief to employees from injury incurred in the railway industry. See Urie v. Thompson, 337 U.S. 163, 69 S.Ct. 1018, 93 L.Ed. 1282 (1949).
Accordingly, as we said in Berardi v. Pure Oil Corporation, 456 F.2d 98, 99 (6th Cir. 1972), “we are hard-pressed to find an abuse of discretion in the court’s dismissal, and do so only because we believe that the interests of justice require that [appellant] be afforded one more opportunity to conform [his actions] to the court’s orders.” Any further delay occasioned by appellant or his counsel will not evoke the same special solicitude on our part, and we expressly reject counsel’s contention that the court was without power to enter the dismissal order. We reverse only because in balancing the equities, the interest of the employee who claims injury (not his counsel) outweighs, if only slightly so, the interest of the railroad and the concern of the court for its calendar, on these facts.
We decline to consider the issues relating to discovery because as the ease now stands they are interlocutory in nature and review of them may never be required.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith. Costs will abide the outcome of the case on its merits.
. The letter, dated July 20, 1972, read as follows:
Dear Judge Krupansky:
I am enclosing herewith a letter from Dr. John N. McCann of Youngstown, Ohio in respects to his medical advice relating to my present physical condition.
Dr. McCann, as you will note, advises that I cease activities for a period of one month and will evaluate me again at that time as to the likelihood of my resuming my activities or whether to continue on the basis of his original medical advice or on a restricted activity basis.
I regret that I am unable to fulfill my obligations at this time but matters concerning my health must be given first priority. As soon as my physician advises me that I can return to active duty, I will notify you.
SS: John Ruffalo

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

Choices:

Answer: 1