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 "natural persons". 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:
Frank STURM, Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA ADULT AUTHORITY, Lawrence E. Wilson, Warden of San Quentin State Prison, California, et al., Appellees.
No. 22072.
United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.
Dec. 21, 1967.
Rehearing Denied April 5, 1968.
Frank Sturm, in pro. per.
Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., John T. Murrhy, Joyce P. Nedde, Deputy Attys. Gen., San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.
Before MERRILL, KOELSCH and BROWNING, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
In March 1957 appellant and a code-fendant were convicted of first degree robbery [Cal.Pen.Code, § 211] and were both sentenced to imprisonment for the term prescribed by law, which is from five years to life. (Cal.Pen.Code, §§ 213, 671, 1168). In 1959 the California Adult Authority, pursuant to Cal.Pen.Code, § 5077, fixed the indeterminate sentences of appellant and his codefendant at six years. Because of an infraction of the prison rules by appellant, the Adult Authority in 1960 rescinded its previous determination of appellant’s term. (Cal. Pen.Code, § 3020). In July 1962, after appellant had again broken prison rules, the Adult Authority redetermined his sentence at a term of ten and one-half years pursuant to Cal.Pen.Code, § 3020. Appellant was released on parole in October 1962, but his parole was cancelled in September 1963; he is now serving his redetermined ten and one-half year term. While appellant remains incarcerated, his codefendant has been discharged after completion of his sentence as originally fixed by the Adult Authority.
Appellant has unsuccessfully sought a writ of habeas corpus in the state courts challenging his continued incarceration. In March 1967 appellant petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court, but his petition was denied without a hearing or the issuance of an order to show cause. He appeals from the District Court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus, challenging his continued incarceration on several grounds.
First, appellant argues that he was denied due process because the Adult Authority, by redetermining his sentence after it had once been fixed, acted outside its statutory authority under Cal. Pen.Code §§ 3020, 5077. The California courts, however, have consistently held that:
“[t]he Adult Authority, by statute, has exclusive jurisdiction to fix the length of time a prisoner must serve within the limits of an indeterminate sentence. (Pen.Code §§ 3020, 5077.) One who is legally convicted has no vested right to the determination of his sentence at less than maximum [citations], and hence the authority ‘may redetermine such sentences as conditions require’.” In re Schoengarth, 66 Adv.Cal. 288, 295, 57 Cal.Rptr. 600, 604, 425 P.2d 200, 204 (1967).
The California Supreme Court has explained that the original trial and conviction resulted in the “imposition of a sentence that was indeterminate, and until fixed, amounted to a maximum sentence provided for the crime in question. When the Authority reduces a maximum sentence, its action, in the nature of things, is tentative and may be changed for cause.” In re McLain, 55 Cal.2d 78, 85, 9 Cal.Rptr. 824, 829, 357 P.2d 1080, 1085 (1960), appeal dismissed, cert. denied, 368 U.S. 10, 82 S.Ct. 18, 7 L.Ed.2d 18 (1961). The California courts have clearly recognized the statutory authorization for the Adult Authority to redetermine a sentence; this court has previously stated that a state court’s interpretation of its statute does not raise a federal question. In re Costello, 262 F.2d 214 (9th Cir. 1958) (per curiam).
Appellant next contends that the redetermination of his sentence from six years to ten and one-half years was, in reality, a consecutive four and one-half year sentence for his infractions of the prison rules. Appellant contends that this penalty is excessive and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The basic premise of appellant’s argument — that his sentence for the robbery conviction was permanently determined at six years' — -is incorrect. As noted previously, all indeterminate sentences are for the maximum, and any determination by the Adult Authority is only tentative. Therefore, it is not accurate to characterize the re-determination of the appellant’s sentence as an imposition of any penalty for the infractions, when the redetermined sentence was within the limits of the penalty for his conviction.
Appellant also asserts that the statutory provisions empowering the Adult Authority to determine sentences constitute an illegal delegation of authority by the California Legislature. Again, however, no federal question is raised by this claim, for such matters are for determination by the State. Dreyer v. People of State of Illinois, 187 U.S. 71, 84, 23 S.Ct. 28, 47 L.Ed. 79 (1902).
Finally, appellant argues that since his codefendant has been released, his continued imprisonment violates equal protection. The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires only that state laws be applied uniformly to situations that cannot be reasonably distinguished. Baxstrom v. Herold, 383 U.S. 107, 111, 86 S.Ct. 760, 15 L.Ed.2d 620 (1966). The California court has pointed out that “[a] major purpose of the indeterminate sentence law, Penal Code, §§ 1168, 3020 et seq., is to permit individual treatment of offenders, according to the best judgment of the authority. It follows that the fact that other prisoners have had their sentence reduced, or been granted parole, affords no ground for complaint by petitioner.” Azeria v. California Adult Authority, 193 Cal.App.2d 1, 5, 13 Cal.Rptr. 839, 842 (1961) (Duniway, J.). Here, appellant had twice violated prison rules and it was not unreasonable for the Adult Authority to treat him differently than his code-fendant.
None of appellant’s claims has merit; the District Court’s order denying the petition for habeas corpus is therefore affirmed.
On Petition for Rehearing
The petition of appellant for rehearing is denied.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 1