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:
In re HIGHLAND SILK CO., Inc. COPE v. SELTZER.
No. 4185.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
May 22, 1930.
See, also, 41 F.(2d)'404,
Sidney E. Smith, of Philadelphia, Pa., and Webster S. Aehey, of Doylestown, Pa., for appellant.
Sigmund H. Steinberg, of Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee.
Before BUFFINGTON and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judge.
After the Highland Silk Company was adjudged bankrupt, a contest arose between its trustee and a mortgagee of its plant, as to whether the silk-manufacturing machinery used therein passed to the trustee as personalty or was covered by a mortgage on the plant held by him. By agreement the machinery was sold, the price substituted therefor, and the matter referred to the referee. He took all the proof offered by the parties, and held the mortgagee was entitled to the fund. On certificate, the court, in an opinion reversing the referee, In re Highland Silk Co. (D. C.) 41 F.(2d) 404, said: “In this ease, the referee apparently was of the opinion that, if the machinery which is the subject of the controversy, was indispensable in carrying on the business of the particular factory in which it was located, it necessarily became a part" of the realty. While some of the eases in dealing with the question of machines as fixtures used rather broad language, a careful review of all the Pennsylvania decisions upon the subject makes it clear that the primary and controlling consideration with regard to machinery in manufacturing plants is the same as in the case of any other kind of chattel, namely, the intention of the owner in placing it upon the real estate.”
It further said: “The referee has made no finding upon the essential question of intention, and apparently given no adequate consideration * * * upon it,” and thereupon re-referred the case “to the referee for further consideration and for findings in accordance with this opinion.”
From the record it appears that on the original hearing the mortgagee’s offer of testimony “to substantiate the allegation and contention that the machinery is a fixture and part of the realty and it was placed with that intention by the bankrupt,” was allowed and such testimony as the mortgagee produced was received. On the re-reference hearing, the mortgagee sought to introduce further testimony, but the referee held “that further testimony would be improper at this time unless we weré to be shown that it was entirely a new matter that for some reason had not been covered previously.” We are of opinion that there was no error in the referee so ruling. The court’s order did not instruct him to take further testimony. The mortgagee had, as we have noted, at the pri- or hearing been allowed to produce testimony on the question of intent. The court has in effect construed the scope of its own order by approving the referee’s action. This leaves for consideration the question whether the referee, on the testimony before him, erred in his finding “that it was not the intention of the parties at the time the mortgage was created, that the machinery be subject to the lien of the mortgage.”
Without entering into details, we think the proofs and the question involved may fairly be stated as follows: Silk-making machinery, bought on a recorded conditional sales contract, was installed in an ordinary factory loft building, suitable, aud previously used, for other light manufacturing purposes. After the buyer subsequently acquired title to the building and land, but before the conditional sales contract money was paid, a mortgage on “all that certain mill and tract of land,” without mention of the silk machinery, was given. The machinery was easily severable without injury to the fealty and “was of a character which was subject to rapid obsolescence and hence subject to fairly . frequent replacement.” Under such facts and findings, we are of opinion no error was committed in awarding the fund to the trustee.

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