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 "private business and its executives". 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:
HARRIS et al. v. UNITED STATES.
No. 3563.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
May 2, 1934.
R. H. McNeill, of Washington, D. C. (Mc-Neill & McNeill, of Washington, D. C., and J. E. Carpenter, of Maxton, N. C., on the brief), for appellants.
W. 3EL Eisher, U. S. Atty., of • Clinton, N. C.
Before PARKER and NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judges, and COLEMAN, District Judge.
WILLIAM C. COLEMAN, District Judge.
This appeal arises out of a suit upon a war risk insurance policy, the appellants being the representatives of the beneficiary under the policy, now deceased.
After' submission of all of the evidence, both the government and the plaintiffs (appellants) moved for directed verdicts, and after considering both motions, the court directed a verdict in favor of the government, answering the three issues, which had been submitted as follows:
“I. Was Solomon McNeill, the decedent, permanently and totally disabled within the meaning of the War Risk term insurance Contract on July 31st, 1919 [presumably intended to be the date of decedent’s discharge from service, although the date appears elsewhere in the record to have been July 28th, 1919] ? Answer: Yes.
“II. Is the claim of plaintiffs barred by the statute of limitations pleaded in this ease, which is set out in section '445; Title 38, U. S. Code? Answer: Yes.
“III. What amount are plaintiffs entitled to recover of defendant? Answer: Nothing.”
The term of court at which the ease was tried would have expired on March 23,-1933, but on that date the trial judge, at the request of plaintiffs, as a result of their representations that an appeal was contemplated, signed an order extending the term of court for one hundred and twenty days from that date, that is, until July 21st, “for the purpose of settling and signing bill of exceptions in any of the cases tried at this term of court in which an appeal may be taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals.” Judgment in favor of the government was entered on May 18, 1933. Thereafter, on August 11, 1933, the trial judge signed a further order extending the term for sixty days more, presumably not realizing that the original one hundred and twenty days’ extension had already expired. Then, on September 191,1933, a bill of exceptions was presented to the trial judge for his approval, but he refused to sign it on the ground that the term of court at which the ease had been tried liad expired on July 21, 1933, that is, before the second order of August 11, 1933, purporting to extend it, had been signed; that, therefore, this latter order was null and void; and that he was without power to sign the bill of exceptions. The record does not disclose that there was any rule of the District Court providing for extension of terms.
There are three assignments of error, two relating generally to the directed verdict in favor of the government, and the third alleging that the trial court erred in sustaining the plea of limitations.
The government contends that this court is without authority, to consider the present appeal for the reason that the bill of exceptions was not approved and signed by the trial judge, and that, furthermore, his action in refusing to do so was entirely proper, because it was not tendered to him until sixty days after the term of court at which the case was tried had expired, and that for this reason he had no authority to do other than what he did do.
Under conditions such as those in the present ease, a trial judge is without authority to sign bills of exceptions. Exporters of Mfrs’ Products v. Butterworth-Judson Co., 258 U. S. 365; 42 S. Ct. 331, 66 L. Ed. 663; and cases cited. It is equally well settled that this court is without power to! consider bills of exceptions unless they are signed by the trial judge. Osborn v. United States (C. C. A.) 50 F.(2d) 712; Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. Baker (C. C. A.) 58 F.(2d) 627; certiorari denied 287 U. S. 610, 53 S. Ct. 13, 77 L. Ed. 530. Where there is no bill of exceptions properly'before the court, the record which we may consider on appeal is limited to the pleadings, process, verdict, and judgment. See Reilly v. Beekman (C. C. A.) 24 F.(2d) 791; Barton v. Automobile Insurance Co. (C. C. A.) 63 F.(2d) 631, and cases cited. Thus limited, the record discloses no error.
For the aforegoing reasons, the judgment must be affirmed.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 99