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:
Henry J. ERNST, Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Solicitor, Department of the Interior, and Roy N. Mikel, Appellees.
No. 15431.
United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.
April 29, 1957.
Maurice T. Johnson, Fairbanks, Alaska, for appellant.
George M. Yeager, U. S. Atty., Eugene v. Miller, Fairbanks, Alaska, Perry W. Morton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellees.
Before HEALY, LEMMON, and FEE, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
This action was brought by appellant against the Secretary of the Interior, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, and one Roy N. Mikel, seeking review of a decision of the Solicitor can-celling a homestead entry which had been allowed to appellant in 1951. The complaint alleged that the decision permitted the re-entry by Mikel, who was the contestant.
Service of process on the Secretary and the Solicitor was attempted by mailing copies of the complaint to them and to the Attorney General of the United States in Washington, D. C., and by leaving a copy of the summons and complaint with the United States Attorney at Fairbanks, Alaska. The latter moved the court that an order be entered quashing the return of service and dismissing the complaint as against the Secretary and Solicitor on the ground that they are residents of the District of Columbia and actions can be brought against them only in that place. The motion was granted and an order to quash and dismiss was entered accordingly. The plaintiff appealed, stating as the point on which he intended to rely that the court erred in granting the motion.
Appellees Secretary and Solicitor, by their attorneys, have appeared specially and moved this court to affirm the judgment below and to remand the cause for further proceedings, serving appellant with a copy of the moving papers. Appellant has appeared and filed with us a memorandum opposing the motion.
The order to quash and dismiss the case as against the Secretary and the Solicitor was clearly correct inasmuch as the court lacked jurisdiction of those officers. Their official residence is in Washington, D. C. The governing statute (28 U.S.C.A. § 1391(b) provides that “a civil action wherein jurisdiction is not founded solely on diversity of citizenship may be brought only in the judicial district where all defendants reside, except as otherwise provided by law.” There is no statutory authority for instituting suit against these officials elsewhere than in their place of residence. An affirmance of the order below will operate to avoid fruitless delays and costs and will in no wise prejudice appellant’s right to bring an action in the proper jurisdiction. Appellate courts have, and frequently exercise, authority to dispose summarily of matters which are patently without merit. See, for example, the action of this court in United States v. Berger, 150 F.2d 56, which reversed on motion a judgment of dismissal granted by the district court. Accordingly the order below dismissing the action as against the Secretary and the Solicitor is affirmed.
As earlier stated, the motion asks also that the cause be remanded for further proceedings, presumably as against .the defendant Mikel. Mikel had answered appellant’s complaint, denying all allegations thereof save that a decision in his favor had been rendered in the contest proceeding. Mikel was and is mere nominal party in any event. However the case, if any, as against Mikel is remanded for the further consideration of the district court.
Affirmed in part and remanded in part.

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: 0