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:
LANCES et al. v. LETZ.
No. 98.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Dec. 2, 1940.
Joseph Rilander, of New York City, for plaintiffs-appellants.
William J. Dowd, of New York City (Hornidge & Dowd, of New York City, on the brief), for defendant-respondent.
Before L. HAND, CHASE, and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
CLARK, Circuit Judge.
The parties here are competitors in the business of manufacturing and marketing sculptural “bras” or brassieres. We have to determine whether or not an incipient controversy between them had become so dead by the time this action was brought as not to furnish a case for a declaratory judgment.
On February 4, 1939, defendant’s attorney addressed a letter to the plaintiff Edith Lances — with ydiom the other plaintiffs do business under the firm name of Edith Lances Brassieres — asserting that the-cut of plaintiffs’ brassiere was an infi-ingement of defendant’s patent No. 1,942,250 and stating that the purpose of the letter was “to inform you of the fact that Miss Letz will adopt any and all legal means and procedure provided by the civil law to restrain the infringement of her patent, and for the recovery of any damages which she has sustained or may sustain in connection with such infringement by anyone.” The letter continued: “However, in view of the circumstances, if you would prefer to take up the subject matter on a basis amicable both to you and to Miss Letz, I would appreciate hearing from you.” Plaintiffs’ response to this opening was decidedly reserved. On March 22, their attorney wrote defendant’s counsel that the garments manufactured by his clients did not infringe any claims of the patent, that plaintiffs’ article in question was in public use prior to defendant’s patent application, that defendant copied the plaintiffs’ brassiere, and that they had “still other evidence” to show that defendant’s claims were “entirely invalid” because of prior art. And this letter closed: “If you should care to take this matter up with me further, I will be glad to have you call upon me.” On July 6, new counsel for defendant addressed plaintiffs’ attorney, calling attention to the previous correspondence as to "the alleged infringement” and saying, “Our client is anxious to litigate this matter but in view of the statements in your letter, we would prefer to have a conference with you on the question of noninfringement and invalidity before proceeding, if you will please assemble for our inspection the material mentioned in your letter of March 22nd. Trusting to see you at an early date, we are,” etc.
And so the inspection was duly had on August 28, but by still another attorney on behalf of the defendant, who avers that his only duty was to look and report back, which he did. Plaintiffs assert, by affidavit of their counsel, that this latest attorney agreed to “let me know within a week or two his client’s disposition in this matter.” There being complete silence from defendant or anyone representing her, plaintiffs commenced this action on November 17, 1939,- to test the validity of defendant’s patent by way of a declaratory judgment. The district court dismissed the action on summary judgment after answer was filed, stating that whether or not a controversy between the parties was initially disclosed, it was not -shown to have continued to the date of commencement of the suit.
We believe it a fair interpretation of the remedial provisions of the declaratory judgment statute, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400, and of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 57, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, that one cannot so brashly initiate a controversy by such extensive threats of litigation as were here involved and then avoid the risk of judicial adjudication by mere nonaction. One of the situations where the declaratory judgment is most helpful is that of patent litigation where a threat of suit for infringement has been made and not pressed for the attention of a court. “This has had a, most beneficial effect in curing what had become a racket. For patentees, none too sure of the validity of their patents, had often notified customers or licensees of their rivals or competitors of their intention to bring suit against all who dealt in the product in question.” Borchard, Declaratory Judgments, 9 Brooklyn L.Rev. 1, 30, 1939; cf. Leach v. Ross Heater & Mfg. Co., 2 Cir., 104 F.2d 88, 91; E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. Byrnes, 2 Cir., 101 F.2d 14; Zenie Bros. v. Miskend, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 10 F.Supp. 779; Mitchell & Weber, Inc. v. Williamsbridge Mills, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 14 F.Supp. 954; 45 Yale L.J. 160, 1935, 1287, 1936. And when the threat of action is made, we do not believe plaintiffs must go further and show that infringement notices have already been sent to the trade; the position of peril and insecurity for plaintiffs already exists. Borchard, Judicial Relief for Peril and Insecurity, 45 Harv.L.Rev. 793, 1932; Borchard, Declaratory Judgments, 1934, 5, 307.; 45 Yale L.J. at 163; Caterpillar Tractor Co. v. International Harvester Co., 9 Cir., 106 F.2d 769, at page 773; Interstate Cotton Oil Refining Co. v. Refining, Inc., D.C.Nev., 22 F.Supp. 678.
Here the initial threat was even emphasized when defendant continued to maintain her position through successive counsel. Defendant asserts that all these movements were only exploratory, that the changes in counsel came because the first ones were not patent experts and the second were in the enviable position of being too busy to make the inspection tour in person, and that the lack of further affirmative action on her part showed that the controversy was not being pressed. But there certainly was nothing in the situation, so far as the plaintiffs knew or were informed, to make unreasonable a conclusion on their part that she was lying in ambush to use her claim of patent infringement when it would be most damaging. In truth, she does not even disclaim this possible maneuver in her answer herein, for she simply states, rather disingenuously, that, after receiving the report of her attorney, she “determined temporarily to do nothing further in the matter until she could consult again with” her lawyers (the ones who were previously too busy to act) “and secure their opinion.” And she adds that she “does not know” whether or not the plaintiffs’ brassieres are an infringement of her patent and that she “has relied wholly in this matter” upon these attorneys. Since her answer was filed, these attorneys have given way to yet new counsel. We think the time has come when this lady must either repudiate her original claims or consent to an adjudication of them.
Reversed.

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