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 "the federal government, its agencies, and officials". 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:
Reginald CARRELL, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
No. 18782.
United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued Feb. 10, 1965.
Decided March 18, 1965.
Mr. William H. Clarke, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. David F. Grim-aldi, Washington, D. C. (both appointed by this court) was on the brief, for appellant.
Mr. David N. Ellenhorn, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. David C. Acheson, U. S. Atty., Frank Q. Nebeker and Joseph A. Lowther, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before Fahy, Burger and McGowan, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant, with others, was convicted of rape. He did not appeal within the time specified in Rule 37(a) (2), Fed.R. Crim.P. Others tried with him did appeal, one obtaining a reversal. Franklin et al. v. United States, 117 U.S.App.D.C. 331, 330 F.2d 205 (1964). Prior to that decision, but some thirteen months after he had been sentenced, appellant on February 14,1964 filed in the District Court a Motion for leave to file an appeal after the 10 days specified in the Rule had expired. He claimed in substance that his trial counsel had failed to follow his instruction to file an appeal, a failure of which appellant says he had been unaware. The motion was denied. On appeal this court remanded to the District Court:
“with directions to cause the production of petitioner in open court at a hearing, at which the court will require the attendance of petitioner’s trial counsel and shall hear him, as well as petitioner, and any other competent evidence that may be offered relevant to the purpose of this remand. Upon the conclusion of such hearing, at which the Government as well as the petitioner maybe represented by counsel, the District Court will make findings of fact and conclusions of law and thereupon enter a new final order on petitioner’s motion for extension of time, based upon the record as supplemented by said findings and conclusions.”
Carrell v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 264, 335 F.2d 686, 687 (1964).
On this remand the District Court immediately held a hearing at which appellant’s trial counsel was present but in the posture of a witness and not as counsel. Carrell was not represented and it is this absence of representation which is the basis of his complaint here.
The issue in the hearing was whether Carrell could show a basis for some relief. We suggest no failure whatever in trial counsel’s conduct but a hearing to determine whether failure to take a timely appeal is to be excused is so critical to the basic right of appeal that one who is without counsel and urges the claim must be offered the assistance of counsel.
Remanded for further proceedings.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officialss"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 0