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:
RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION v. BAIRSTOW.
No. 8363.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
Jan. 19, 1944.
Rehearing Denied March 13, 1944.
Lee Walker, M. O. Hoel, and Lawrence T. Manning, all of Chicago, 111., for appellant.
Joseph H. Pleck and J. B. Cleaver, both of Chicago, 111., for appellee.
Before KERNER and MINTON, Circuit Judges, and LINDLEY, District Judge.
KERNER, Circuit Judge.
The sole question in this case is whether the complaint stated a cause of action.
The facts: On January 20,1927, defendant’s lessees, Victor C. and Charlotte Carlson, executed and delivered their bonds, and to secure payment thereof, they conveyed to the Chicago Trust Company, as trustee, their interest in said leasehold estate. January 5, 1931, the defendant, for a valuable consideration, executed and delivered to the Chicago Trust Company, as trustee, his written guaranty, guaranteeing the payment of the then remaining outstanding bonds. After the execution of the guaranty, plaintiff became the legal holder of certain of said bonds and sued for the principal of the bonds and interest. By the guaranty the defendant guaranteed the performance of “each and every [one of] the obligations and conditions set forth in said bonds and in the trust deed securing the same,” and in the event of default, agreed “immediately upon demand to make good said default.” The guaranty agreement also provided that “This guarantee is a continuing guarantee and may be enforced against the undersigned from time to time as and whenever there may be a default of any of the obligations guaranteed” and that “This guarantee shall inure to the benefit of all persons now or hereafter owners or holders of said bonds.” The guaranty provided further that “Chicago Trust Company, as Trustee * * * for the owners or holders of said bonds * * * shall have the right to enforce this guarantee. * * *”
In the District Court defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the plaintiff was a stranger to and had no interest in the guaranty agreement and that the guaranty was not enforceable by the plaintiff because the defendant promised to render performance only to the Chicago Trust Company as trustee. The court sustained the motion and entered judgment for costs against the plaintiff. From that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
It seems to us that this case does not require any extended discussion, since the rules of law which must govern us are clearly established by the decisions rendered by the courts of Illinois. Thus, it has been held that if a contract be entered into for the direct benefit of a third person not a party thereto, such third person may sue for breach thereof. The test is whether the benefit to the third person is direct to him or is but an incidental benefit to him arising from the contract. If direct he may sue on the contract; if incidental he has no right of recovery thereon. Carson Pirie Scott & Co. v. Parrett, 346 Ill. 252, 178 N.E. 498, 81 A.L.R 1262, and Cherry v. Ætna Casualty & Surety Co., 372 Ill. 534, 25 N.E.2d 11. And to enable the third party to sue the promisor, it is not necessary that the obligation shall have been undertaken by the latter directly or primarily for the benefit of the third person. All that is necessary is that the third party have a beneficial interest in the enforcement of the contract, Merchants Loan, etc., Co. v. Ummach, 228 Ill.App. 67, and when it is clear that the third party has a beneficial interest in the enforcement of the contract, the promise thus made in the agreement inures to the benefit of the person for whose benefit it is made, and the right to sue is vested in him by force of the agreement itself, Webster v. Fleming, 178 Ill. 140, 145, 52 N.E. 975. It has been held that the legal holder of the bonds has a beneficial interest in the guaranty here involved, City National Bank, etc., Co. v. Bairstow, 319 Ill.App. 632, 50 N.E.2d 111; consequently, the plaintiff has the right to sue upon the guaranty, and the fact that the guaranty provided that the Chicago Trust Company, as trustee, shall have the right to enforce the guaranty will not be construed to mean that plaintiff could not commence suit, Borker v. Bendix, 288 Ill.App. 260, 270, 6 N.E.2d 312, and Bairstow case, supra, pages 636, 637, of 319 Ill.App., 50 N.E.2d 111.
Defendant calls our attention to that part of the guaranty reciting that in addition to the delivery of certain bonds, there were considerations “not herein expressed” and he argues that the complaint is defective because it does not allege that the unexpressed considerations had been fulfilled and performed. But in the Bairstow c'ase, supra, 637 of 319 Ill.App., 50 N.E.2d 111, the court said, since the guaranty was absolute in its nature, there was no merit in this contention.
The judgment of the District Court is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

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