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:
A.V. COSTANTINI, d/b/a United Travel Service, d/b/a Halliburton Tours, Petitioner, v. CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Respondent.
No. 82-7250.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Submitted April 12, 1983.
Decided May 25, 1983.
A.V. Costantini, pro se.
Ivars V. Mellups, Acting Gen. Counsel, Thomas L. Ray, Acting Associate Gen. Counsel, David Schaffer, Atty., Civil Aeronautics Board, Washington, D.C., William F. Baxter, Asst. Atty. Gen., John J. Powers, III, William J. Roberts, Attys., Dept, of Justice, Washington, D.C., for respondent.
Before BROWNING, Chief Judge, FLETCHER and NORRIS, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
The panel unanimously agrees that this case can be submitted without oral argument. See Fed.R.App.P. 34(a).
Costantini seeks review of an order of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) affirming the dismissal by the Director of the CAB’s Bureau of Compliance and Consumer Protection (BCCP) of a complaint filed by Costantini with the CAB on October 20, 1981. The complaint alleges violations of anti-rebating provisions of section 411 of the Federal Aviation Act (FAA), 49 U.S.C. § 1381. We have jurisdiction under 49 U.S.C. § 1486(a) (1976) and affirm.
Section 411 authorizes the CAB to investigate third-party allegations of “unfair or deceptive practices or unfair methods of competition” in the air transportation industry “if it considers that such action by it would be in the interest of the public.” Thus, “the Board’s jurisdiction to initiate an investigation under § 411 is expressly premised on a finding that the ‘public interest’ is involved.” Nader v. Allegheny Airlines, Inc., 426 U.S. 290, 302, 96 S.Ct. 1978, 1986, 48 L.Ed.2d 643 (1976).
Here, however, the CAB determined that an investigation of the allegations in Costantini’s complaint would not be in the public interest. We do not conduct an independent investigation to see whether the CAB’s determination was correct; we ask only whether “the Board has stayed within its jurisdiction and applied criteria appropriate to that determination.” American Airlines, Inc. v. North American Airlines, Inc., 351 U.S. 79, 85, 76 S.Ct. 600, 605, 100 L.Ed. 953 (1956).
The criteria on which the CAB based its determination here include: (1) the complaint was so lacking in specificity that no prima facie case was established; (2) the CAB has already conducted extensive investigations into rebating in the past; (3) the CAB’s ongoing review of the entire market structure of air transportation already provides a sufficient degree of investigation; (4) the rebate practice complained of would not hurt the general public (as opposed to certain travel agents like Costantini) even if it did occur; (5) the previously regulated practice complained of is now undergoing deregulation; and (6) the scarce investigatory funds of the CAB are better spent elsewhere. These criteria are entirely appropriate. The CAB did not abuse its discretion in dismissing Costantini’s complaint without a hearing. See DHL Corp. v. CAB, 659 F.2d 941, 945 (9th Cir.1981); REA Express Inc., v. CAB, 507 F.2d 42, 47 (2d Cir.1974).
This appeal is frivolous. The allegations in the complaint have been made by Costantini and disposed of in prior proceedings. Most recently before our court, we affirmed the CAB’s dismissal of several of Costantini’s complaints under remarkably similar circumstances of generalized allegations and repetitive charges. Costantini v. CAB, 679 F.2d 896 (9th Cir.1982). Even a cursory reading of our disposition of that appeal would have indicated that the outcome of this appeal was certain and the appeal therefore frivolous. As the CAB has patiently explained to Costantini on four previous occasions, Costantini’s complaints suggest essentially a private dispute with the airline industry and should be pursued, if at all, in forums other than the CAB. At some point, the free use of process becomes an abuse, for misuse diminishes our capacity to aid those who deserve access to our process. Costantini has crossed that line. We therefore assess Costantini attorney’s fees and double costs on this appeal. See Fed.R.App.P. 38.
The order of the Civil Aeronautics Board is AFFIRMED.
. The Board shall submit a record of its counsel’s time expended on this appeal along with its cost bill. The amount of attorney’s fees will be set by supplemental order.

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: 1