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:
UNITED STATES of America v. Samuel WILLIAMS, Appellant.
Nos. 23093, 23098.
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Nov. 3, 1970.
Mr. J. Gordon Forester, Jr., Washington, D. C. (appointed by this court) was on the brief for appellant.
Messrs. Thomas A. Flannery, U. S. Atty., and John A. Terry and John R. Dugan, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief for appellee.
Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and MeGOWAN and TAMM, Circuit Judges, in Chambers.
PER CURIAM:
These appeals are from jury convictions of passing and uttering counterfeited obligations of the United States (18 U.S.C. § 472), and for intimidating a government witness (18 U.S.C. § 1503). The three issues raised by appellant on appeal all relate to matters to which no objection was taken in the trial court.
Appellant first argues that the trial judge abused his discretion by failing to exclude prior convictions of witnesses who testified for appellant. See Luck v. United States, 121 U.S.App.D.C. 151, 348 F.2d 763 (1965). In Davis v. United States, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 167, 409 F.2d 453 (1969), this court held that the Luck doctrine applies to impeachment by prior convictions of all witnesses, not just the accused. However, unless the trial judge’s discretion in this regard is properly invoked in the first instance with respect to an accused testifying in his own defense, it cannot normally be held on appeal to have been abused. See, e. g., Evans v. United States, 130 U.S. App.D.C. 114, 397 F.2d 675 (1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 907, 89 S.Ct. 1016, 22 L.Ed.2d 218 (1969); Harley v. United States, 126 U.S.App.D.C. 287, 377 F.2d 172 (1967); Hood v. United States, 125 U.S.App.D.C. 16, 365 F.2d 949 (1966). The same principle is a fortiori applicable to defense witnesses other than the accused.
Appellant’s second contention focuses upon the trial judge’s explanatory remarks prefatory to his instruction to the jury with respect to the impeachment of defense witnesses. The trial judge stated that a counsel vouches for the credibility of the witnesses he produces. Appellant charges that these remarks put the credibility of the defense counsel in issue. This appears to be a strained construction of what was said; and we note that trial counsel himself saw no occasion to object. Under the circumstances, we find no basis for reversal in this incident.
Finally, appellant contends that he was fatally prejudiced by the allegedly improper cross-examination by the prosecutor of certain character witnesses offered by appellant. Questions were asked as to the witnesses’ knowledge of previous arrests of appellant for robbery, possession of a prohibited weapon, and housebreaking. There is considerable latitude to ask character witnesses about the state of their knowledge of defendant’s background and experience as they bear upon his reputation for honesty and integrity. See Michelson v. United States, 335 U.S. 469, 69 S.Ct. 213, 93 L.Ed. 168 (1958); Cf. United States v. Wooden, 137 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 420 F.2d 251 (1969). Whether the government’s cross-examination in this instance was within the permissible bounds need not be definitely resolved by us since there was no objection to the questions asked. Of this point, as of the others discussed above, it is true in any event that the error, if any, was harmless when considered by reference to the entire record. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).
Affirmed.
. Appellant has also belatedly challenged in this court the constitutionality of 14 D.C.Code § 305. The issue is untimely; and see Bailey v. United States, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 242, 426 F.2d 1236 (1970).

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