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:
H. H. BECKANSTIN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
No. 15773.
United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.
April 25, 1956.
Rehearing Denied May 24, 1956.
James I. McCain, New Orleans, La., for appellant.
Jack C. Benjamin, Asst. U. S. Atty., New Orleans, La., George R. Blue, U. S. Atty., New Orleans, La., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and-TUTTLE and CAMERON, Circuit Judges.
CAMERON, Circuit Judge.
The appellant, H. H. Beckanstin, was convicted on one count of an indictment charging perjury in a civil suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The indictment was in three counts, but two of thém were dismissed. The indictment was brought under 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1621, and the prosecution was based upon appellant’s alleged false statement as to where he graduated from architectural school. His attorney asked appellant: “What architectural school did you graduate from?”; and appellant responded “Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” He admitted later in the trial that, while he had attended that school, he had not graduated therefrom. The case is before us on appellant’s contentions that the testimony wás not about a material matter and that the evidence shows, as a matter of law, that appellant had no intent to deceive.
The alleged perjured testimony was given in a civil damage suit brought in the Court below by appellant against one Emanuel Grizzaffi and tried in 1951. That was a. suit seeking damages appellant alleged, he had sustained by reason of an unsuccessful criminal prosecution Grizzaffi had instituted against him in a Louisiana State Court. That criminal prosecution had been instituted as the result of a controversy between appellant and Grizzaffi in connection with a house appellant, as contractor, had built for Grizzaffi in 1945.
It is important to understand the setting in which the alleged perjured testimony was given in order to determine the real quality and import of the act of appellant in testifying to what,' according to his unequivocal statement, was not true. He had just been placed on the stand by his attorney, Mr. Blanchard, at the beginning of his civil damage suit against Grizzaffi. He was first asked to give his name, his residence, and his profession and the attorney then asked, “What architectural school did you graduate from?” Immediately after appellant had made his answer, “Massaehusetts Institute of Technology”, the Court interrupted the examination with a series of questions concerning a statement appellant had made to the effect that he was registered as an architect in every state of the Union. This had the effect of taking the attention of all engaged in the trial from the quoted question and answer with respect to which appellant is now being prosecuted.
No one connected with appellant’s case then on trial seemed to have caught the misstatement except his wife, then his fiancée. That night, while she, appellant and the lawyer were at dinner, she asked if appellant had not testified that he graduated from M. I. T. Appellant immediately responded, “Oh, no”' — that he had merely attended the school. She countered with the statement that she understood that he answered that he had graduated from the school; and the three had a discussion as to whether the mistake, if made, should not be cleared up. The lawyer stated that he did not consider it important, and the matter was then dropped and the mistake was not voluntarily corrected. Grizzaffii’s attorney accordingly seized the opportunity to score a telling point and confronted appellant with a telegram from M. I. T. stating that he had attended the school, but had not graduated; and appellant promptly conceded that this was true.
The foregoing sequence of events was established in the Court below in this trial by the testimony of Mr. Blanchard, the appellant and his wife. The Court below took hold of Mr. Blanchard, examining him vigorously in an effort to bring out from him that he had used the word “graduate” advisedly and because his client, the appellant, had so informed him. Mr. Blanchard denied that categorically and stated that appellant had not told him that he had graduated from any school of architecture, and that he had chosen his words inadvertently and without any thought of obtaining any advantage. At the time he asked the question he did not even know which school appellant had attended. Appellant testified that he did not know he had stated that he was a graduate of M. I. T., not catching the form of the question; that he was manifestly confused in his answer, that he never intended to convey that impression or to deceive anyone. His attorney verified these statements, also disclaiming any ulterior motive. In the face of this undisputed testimony we are of the opinion that the Government failed to establish the materiality of the testimony or the presence of the essential ingredient of intent to deceive.
The testimony upon which the prosecution is predicated was given during the introductory stage of the examination of the witness. The whole series of questions was such as is normally expected when a litigant or witness is being identified to court and jury. But for the prompt interposition of the Court in connection with an answer to a previous question, it is likely that the mistake would have been caught at the time. At all events, it is clear that the answer was a mistake and that it would have been cleared up promptly when the young lady brought it to the attention of the appellant and his attorney except for the advice of the attorney that the question and answer were unimportant and that appellant ought not to be concerned about it.
The materiality of an alleged false statement under the statute defining perjury is for the court, and the Court below charged the jury, as a matter of law, that the statement was material. With this we do not agree. The question and answer were preliminary and for the purpose of identification. They could not, under the circumstances, have had any material bearing on the issue in a suit for damages for false arrest and malicious prosecution. Whether or not Beckanstin had graduated from the school was of no consequence in resolving the issues involved in that suit. Under the facts here set forth the trial Court should have ruled that the false testimony was not, in fact, material.
Moreover, in order to constitute perjury, a false statement must be made with criminal intent, that is, with intent to deceive, and must be wilfully, deliberately, knowingly and corruptly false. The positive evidence here all shows that, although the answer was false, the witness had not grasped the form of the question, and had not knowingly or wilfully made a false answer with intent to deceive. The circumstances corroborate the positive testimony.
The advice of counsel is also important in determining whether appellant made the statement with a corrupt motive. As soon as he was acquainted with the fact that he had probably made a misleading statement he was ready to correct it, but the attorney did not consider that course necessary or advisable. Willingness to correct the misstatement, though not ordinarily a defense to a perjury prosecution, is potent to negative a wilful intent to swear falsely.
The Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit, in a case involving facts not unlike those before us, expressed the general rule thus : “To sustain a conviction for perjury the burden is upon the government to establish by substantial evidence, excluding every other hypothesis than that of guilt, the essential elements of the crime charged. * * * An essential element is that the defendant must have acted with a criminal intent — he must have believed that what he swore to was false and he must have had the intent to deceive. If there was a lack of consciousness of the nature of the statement made or it was inadvertently made or there was a mistake of the import, there was no corrupt motive. * * * Assuming that the defendant made a false statement when he stated that he ‘got cash for this check’, it is settled that a false statement which is the result of an honest mistake is not perjury. People are prone to use colloquial terms in describing events and in doing so err in failing to adhere to technical terms but such error is insufficient to establish perjury. At most the defendant’s statement was equivocal. In this essential regard the evidence falls far short of the well-settled requirement that the elements of the crime of perjury must be proved by clear and convincing testimony to a moral certainty and beyond all reasonable doubt. Evidence which is merely probable is not enough.”
While ordinarily knowledge and intent are matters to be passed upon by the jury, a prosecution must fail if the Government does not produce sufficient testimony to warrant, under the strict rules of proof applying in such cases, the jury in finding the presence of these necessary ingredients of the crime of perjury. We hold, therefore, that the Court below should have directed the jury to acquit appellant, and its judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for the entry of such a judgment.
Reversed.
. “Whoever, having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any Written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true, is guilty of ' perjury, * *
. Harrell v. United States, 5 Cir., 1955, 220 F.2d 516, and Blackmon v. United States, 5 Cir., 1940, 108 F.2d 572.
. Cf. 70 U.S.J. See. 17(5) and succeeding sections.
. Ib. and United States v. Norris, 1937, 300 U.S. 564, 576, 57 S.Ct. 535, 81 L.Ed. 808.
. United States v. Rose, 3 Cir., 1954, 215 F.2d 617, 622, 623.
. The same Court reached a like result and used similar language in United States v. Neff, 3 Cir., 1954, 212 F.2d 297, 306-307. This case, as well as the Rose case supra, cited as authority our case of McWhorter v. United States, 5 Cir., 1952, 193 F.2d 982. Both of these cases cite a wealth of authority tending to sustain the principles quoted from the Rose case.
Fotie v. United States, 8 Cir., 1943, 137 F.2d 831, 841-842, involved an answer based upon a question which the witness had apparently not fully understood. Because of this and the fact that the trial Court dealt with the question and answer out of context caused the Court to reverse a conviction entered by a District Judge sitting without jury.
Smith v. United States, 6 Cir., 1948, 169 F.2d 118, citing Weiler v. United States, 323 U.S. 606, 65 S.Ct. 548, 89 L.Ed. 495, Fraser v. United States, 6 Cir., 1944, 145 F.2d 145, certiorari denied 324 U.S. 842, 65 S.Ct. 586, 89 L.Ed. 1403, and other cases, is authority for the rule that, in perjury prosecutions, a preliminary question is presented to the Court whether the evidence upon which the prosecution is based is of sufficient quantity and quality to warrant submission to the jury, having in mind that, “To sustain a conviction, it must be shown by clear, convincing and direct evidence to a moral certainty and beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed willful and corrupt perjury.” [169 F.2d 121.]
And see also Spaeth v. United States, 6 Cir., 1955, 218 F.2d 361.

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