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:
Earl KNUDSEN, Appellant, v. The TORRINGTON COMPANY, Appellee.
No. 128, Docket 24756.
United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.
Argued Jan. 8, 1958.
Decided April 18, 1958.
Bruce W. Manternach and Lee C. Fiel-den, Hartford, Conn. (Robinson, Robinson & Cole, Hartford, Conn., W. Gregg Kerr, Jr., William Y. Rodewald and Smith, Buchanan, Ingersoll, Rodewald & Eckert, Pittsburgh, Penna. on the brief), for appellant.
Greene & Cook, Torrington, Conn. (John H. Cook, Torrington, Conn., on the brief), for appellee.
Before HINCKS, LUMBARD and WATERMAN, Circuit Judges.
LUMBARD, Circuit Judge.
The sole question on this appeal is whether plaintiff’s complaint was properly dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b) (6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Chief Judge Smith of the District Court of Connecticut granted the motion on the ground that the complaint disclosed that the plaintiff was claiming under a sales agency contract assigned to him by a partnership and that such a contract, being personal in nature, terminated on dissolution of the partnership.
Plaintiff alleges that he and two others formed a partnership on November 1, 1943 under the firm name of Industrial Specialties Co. for the purpose of carrying on a general sales, engineering, and industrial expediting business. On December 12, 1945 this firm contracted with the defendant to act as defendant’s sales agent in specified territory and promised to “give * * * as good coverage in (the) Pittsburgh territory as (it) can devote to the sale of special metal parts. * * * ” The contract could be can-celled on 90 days written notice by either party. It is further alleged that the partnership was dissolved on November 30, 1955 and the rights under the partnership vested in the plaintiff. Plaintiff notified defendant of the assignment and demanded that the Torrington Company perform under the terms of the agreement, “particularly as to the payment of commissions earned.” This demand was refused. The amount of commissions due is averred to exceed $3,000.
To this complaint defendant interposed a motion under Rule 12(b) (6), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. In granting this motion Judge Smith noted that Pennsylvania law controlled the operation of the contract and that under Pennsylvania decisions contracts requiring a particular skill or relationship terminate when the skill or relationship no longer exists. Although he conceded that the Pennsylvania courts had never determined whether a sales agency contract with a partnership was personal in nature, he held that the “almost universal” rule was to that effect. Referring to the “good coverage” clause, he also stated:
“The selling ‘coverage’ bargained for obviously depended on the energy and skill of the members of the partnership. Different personnel in the partnership would at least change the quality of the coverage and clearly the efforts of one of the three partners would be materially different. When the other two partners withdrew from the firm, the operation of the contract ceased.”
Accordingly, Judge Smith dismissed the complaint.
We are faced at the outset by the fact that the complaint does not differentiate between commissions on orders placed and filled before the termination of the partnership, on orders placed but not filled prior to dissolution, and orders placed after the assignment of the contract to the plaintiff. To the extent that the partnership had performed under the contract the right to receive compensation was assignable and the defendant was obligated to pay over to the assignee what became due to the partnership. Hoover for Use of Angeletti v. Paterni, 1940, 140 Pa.Super. 211, 13 A.2d 914. This would be so even though the right to commissions did not become absolute until the defendant had delivered merchandise, after dissolution of the partnership, in conformity with the prior order. Hentges v. Wolff, 1953, 240 Minn. 517, 61 N.W.2d 748; Lord v. Wapato Irrigation Co., 1914, 81 Wash. 561, 142 P. 1172. Regardless of whether the duties under the contract were delegable, the plaintiff was entitled to receive commissions for orders obtained by the partnership and subsequently filled. The defendant was free to plead payment or raise other defenses, but it had no right to dismissal of the complaint.
To the extent that the plaintiff sues for commissions allegedly owing on orders procured after the termination of the partnership, a different problem is presented. In its resolution we are mindful that a “ * * * complaint should not be dismissed for insufficiency unless it appears to a certainty that plaintiff is entitled to no relief under any state of facts which could be proved in support of the claim.” 2 Moore, Federal Practice 2245 (2d Ed., 1948). See Nag-ler v. Admiral Corp., 2 Cir., 1957, 248 F.2d 319; Dioguardi v. Durning, 2 Cir., 1944, 139 F.2d 774.
In his brief plaintiff asserts that he can prove facts which tend to show that personal performance by all of the partnership partners was not contemplated and hence that the contract was not so personal in nature that it ceased when the original partnership ceased. He states that the original partnership was formed in 1943, that the agency agreement was entered into in 1945, and that when one of the three partners withdrew in 1946 the defendant said nothing. Plaintiff further asserts that of the two remaining partners he was the “brains” of the outfit, that the retiring partner had never had any particular-competence in the field, that in 1945 when the partnership was established plaintiff was the only partner with any financial standing, and that it was he who provided the necessary capital. Other factors he urges upon us are that of the 115 customers at the time the second partner withdrew in 1955 the retiring partner had called on but one, that solicitation had been conducted by a staff of four salesmen who gave “good coverage,” and that any competent group of hired salesmen could have performed the tasks involved. A further consideration is that since the partnership was never indebted in any amount to the defendant, extension of credit is not a factor.
We agree with plaintiff’s conclusion that he should be allowed to go to trial on the issue of whether he could carry on this sales agency contract as the surviving partner, but for different reasons. This contract creates an agency and therefore we think that it is necessarily personal in nature. Duties under a personal contract are delegable, however, if the obligee or principal can be said from all the circumstances to have assented to such delegation.
The personal nature of an agency contract arises as an incident of the legal relationship. An agent may be an independent contractor, not subject to control in the manner in which he performs his duties, but he is an agent nevertheless, and from this agency relation flow certain legal consequences. The fact of the relation implies a promise to use care and skill and imposes fiduciary obligations of loyalty and obedience not normally present in other bilateral agreements. See Commonwealth v. Minds Coal Mining Corp., 1948, 360 Pa. 7, 60 A.2d 14. Because in fact the agency relationship is normally grounded •on the trust and confidence the principal places in his agent, the law has come to impose these personal obligations and duties of the agent and to look upon the relationship as being personal in nature as a matter of law. As a consequence agency duties ordinarily cannot be delegated by the assignment of the contract without the express or implied authority of the principal, see Wetherell Bros. Co. v. United States Steel Co., 1 Cir., 1952, 200 F.2d 761; 4 Corbin, Contracts, § 865 (1951); 10 A.L.R. 653, or by the substitution of another, where the duties involve any personal discretion, skill or judgment. See Brown v. Mt. Holly Nat. Bank, 1927, 288 Pa. 478, 136 A. 773; Restatement, Agency, § 78 (1933).
Since attempts to delegate the duties of a contractual agency have generally arisen in situations where a party has sought, as here, to continue the contract after dissolution of a partnership, the prohibition against delegation has often been phrased in terms of the proposition that the dissolution of a partnership acting as an agent terminates the agency. See Egner v. States Realty Co., 1947, 223 Minn. 305, 26 N.W.2d 464, 170 A.L.R. 500, 512; Meysenburg v. Littlefield, C.C.E.D.Mo., 1905, 135 F. 184; 40 Am.Jur., Partnership, § 267. But we cannot agree that this proposition of law should govern all cases, and we are of the opinion that it should not control here.
It is one thing to say that an agency contract is personal in nature and that agency duties ordinarily cannot be delegated even to a competent substitute without the express or implied authority of the principal. It is another thing to say that the withdrawal of a partner terminates all partnership agency contracts. The latter proposition depends on the view that withdrawal of a partner dissolves the partnership and that therefore any organization resulting from the dissolution is as much a stranger to the principal as an organization completely unrelated to the prior partnership. We think such a conclusion unwarranted and unrealistic. Indeed, courts which have held that dissolution terminates the agency have generally done so only after a careful development and analysis of the facts which indicated that the assignee was in fact substantially different from the prior agent. See e. g. Egner v. States Realty Co., supra; Paige v. Faure, 1920, 229 N.Y. 114, 127 N.E. 898, 10 A.L.R. 649.
Delegation of duties is proper if the principal authorizes, expressly or by implication, the performance by another. Thus there is an implied authorization to delegate ministerial duties or those generally understood to be dele-gable by custom. See Restatement, Agency, §§ 78, 79 (1933). We believe there is an implied authority arising from the contract to delegate duties when the delegation results from changes in the form of the business organization or in personnel who make up that organization and the changes do not tend to defeat the considerations which the principal had in mind in selecting this agent. Cf. Wetherell Bros. Co. v. United States Steel Co., supra; Carlock v. La Salle Extension University, 7 Cir., 1950, 185 F.2d 594.
If a principal contracts with a corporation, he contemplates a changing personnel. It is equally apparent that partnership personnel will not remain static. If the person or persons ■whom it was understood would be the dominant members of the firm and on whom the principal would rely choose to continue the enterprise, it is immaterial that the prior agency was organized as a partnership rather than in corporate form and that the partnership has dissolved. Cf. Walker v. Mason, 1922, 272 Pa. 315, 116 A. 305. To determine whether or not there was an implied authority the determinative question is not whether the contract is generally assignable. Rather, the court must view both the considerations underlying the appointment of the assignor and the nature of the assignee to determine whether the surviving organization is such a change from the assignor as to be beyond the contemplation of the principal in making the original appointment. We think that a factual determination is required by Pennsylvania law, as the courts have indicated a willingness to allow delegation freely, see e. g. In re Stormer’s Estate, 1956, 385 Pa. 382, 123 A.2d 627. Furthermore, such determination is consonant with commercial reality. Even though the agency contract is personal in nature, in a survivorship situation the survivor may show that the principal is getting substantially what he bargained for.
For these reasons the plaintiff was entitled to trial of the issue of delegation of the contract duties to him, as well as the opportunity to prove what might be due as past commissions. It was error to dismiss the complaint.
Reversed.
. In re Stormer’s Estate, 1956, 385 Pa. 382, 123 A.2d 627; In re Book’s Estate, 1929, 297 Pa. 543, 147 A. 608; Young v. Gongaware, 1922, 275 Pa. 285, 119 A. 271; Walker v. Mason, 1922, 272 Pa. 315, 116 A. 305.
. Cf. Denton v. Brocksmith, 5 Cir., 1924, 299 F. 559.

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