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:
INDEPENDENT GRAVEL COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
No. 77-1269.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
Submitted Nov. 17, 1977.
Decided Dec. 27, 1977.
James B. Fleischaker, Roberts & Fleisc-haker, Joplin, Mo., for petitioner.
Allison W. Brown, Jr., Deputy Asst. Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., argued, Morton Namrow, Atty., John S. Irving, Gen. Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Carl L. Taylor, Associate Gen. Counsel, and Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., on brief, for respondent.
Before VAN OOSTERHOUT, Senior Circuit Judge, and LAY and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges.
VAN OOSTERHOUT, Senior Circuit Judge.
This case is before the court upon petition of the Independent Gravel Company (hereinafter the Company) to review and set aside the order of the National Labor Relations Board issued December 7, 1976, reported at 227 NLRB No. 7. The Board has filed a cross-application for enforcement of its order. Jurisdiction is established under § 10(e) and (f) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq., hereinafter called the Act.
The complaint, based upon a charge filed by employee Stanley Mathis, charged the Company with violation of § 8(a)(3) and (1) of the Act by laying off employees Mathis, Bildeau and Inman. The Administrative Law Judge, A.L.J., after conducting an evi-dentiary hearing, upheld the violations charged. The Board affirmed the decision of the A.L.J. The Board’s order requires the Company to cease and desist from the unfair labor practices found and from in any other manner interfering with, restricting or coercing its employees in the exercise of their statutory rights. Affirmatively, the order requires the Company to offer reinstatement to Mathis, Bildeau and In-man, to make them whole for any loss of pay suffered and to post appropriate notice.
The primary issue presented is whether there is substantial evidence on the record as a whole to support the Board’s determination and order. We give a negative answer on such issue, vacate the Board’s order and deny enforcement for the reasons hereinafter set out.
The Company is a corporation engaged in producing and selling gravel and related products. Its business has been subject to seasonal variations. Many of its products are used in paving and road work. The winter months are the slowest in the amount of work, increasing in the spring. Traditionally, the Company has laid off employees in the winter, but in the past such layoffs have not been given to its truck drivers.
Shortly after 7:00 a. m. on February 2, 1976, plant manager Hatfield told Mathis, Bildeau and Inman that they were being laid off for lack of work and that they should apply for unemployment insurance and leave their names and telephone numbers so that they could be called back when business picked up. The Company contends that the layoffs were based solely on economic reasons. The A.L.J. determined:
I find that, while Respondent had ample economic justification for its actions, the motivating consideration for the layoff of the truck drivers was not economic, but, rather, their attendance at the union meeting on the preceding day.
Other employees were also laid off, some of whom did not attend the February 1 meeting. All layoffs were based strictly on the least seniority. We find that the record fully supports economic justification for the layoffs. The Company certainly has a right to temporarily lay off employees for economic reasons provided no discrimination or anti-union bias is involved.
On Sunday, February 1, 1976, between twenty and thirty employees met at the Joint-and-a-Half tavern to consider union organization. The tavern is located on the route from Hatfield’s home to the plant. Hatfield made two trips from his home to the plant on February 1 to inspect some on-going repair work. He was accused of engaging in surveillance of his employees and attempting to create the impression of surveillance. With respect to such charge, the A.L.J. determined:
I find that, on February 1, 1976, Hatfield was neither engaged in surveillance, nor attempting to create the impression that employee union activity was under surveillance. I conclude that the allegation that Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) in that regard must be dismissed.
Such determination is supported by the record.
We find no substantial evidence in the record that Hatfield at the time of the layoffs knew of the February 1 meeting or that he was aware of which employees attended the meeting. The evidence established that some twenty to thirty employees attended the meeting. The intention to hold the meeting was kept secret. Invitations to the meeting were extended orally. The evidence reveals the names of some who attended the meeting, including Mathis, Bildeau and Inman, and some who did not. But no witness was able to name a substantial number of those attending. There is also evidence that certain employees were not at the meeting. Twelve employees were laid off on February 1, including Mathis, Bildeau and Inman, who held the least seniority. Included in the layoffs were some employees not identified as attending the meeting. Others who had attended the meeting were not laid off. At the time of the hearing on May 18,1976, six of the twelve employees who had been laid off had been reinstated. Inman was rehired on March 29, 1976, and Mathis on March 31, 1976, in accordance with their seniority.
The record is completely barren of substantial evidence that manager Hatfield or any officer of the Company had knowledge on the morning of February 2 that there had been a union organization meeting on February 1, or the identity of persons who attended the meeting. There is no evidence of any union animus. Hatfield denied knowledge of the meeting on February 2 and the identity of employees attending. The A.L.J. held:
Hatfield initially testified that he first heard about the February 1 union meeting a day or two later, and that he was unaware of that event on the morning of February 2 when he effectuated the layoffs. He also testified that he never learned the identity of the employees who attended the meeting. However, Hatfield later conceded that when he learned through the “grapevine” that the meeting had occurred, he was also informed of the names of the employees who attended. Hatfield’s own testimony, that he learned of the meeting a day or two after it occurred, permits the inference that he was aware of it on the morning of February 2. In light of all the circumstances, I so infer. Hatfield’s further testimony, denying specific knowledge as of the morning of February 2, is not credited.
The burden of proof is on the General Counsel to establish a violation. The Board’s findings must be based upon substantial evidence. The Board’s findings may not rest on suspicion, surmise, implications, or plainly incredible evidence. A discharge cannot be held to be discriminatory without proof that the employer had knowledge of the employee’s union activity. NLRB v. Garner Tool and Die Mfg., Inc., 493 F.2d 263, 268 (8th Cir. 1974).
No reasonable inference can be drawn from Hatfield’s statement that he learned through the grapevine a day or two after the February 1 meeting of the meeting and its participants prior to the time he made the layoffs on the early morning of February 2. Since the General Counsel offered no proof of such knowledge prior to the layoffs, there is nothing for the Company to rebut.
The A.L.J.’s credibility findings are of course entitled to respect but they must be based upon substantial evidence on the record as a whole. Hatfield’s statement that he learned of the union activity a day or two after the meeting was not pinned down to a time prior to the layoffs. The statement as to time is ambiguous. Such statement standing alone, particularly in the light of Hatfield’s disclaimer of knowledge at the time of the discharges, does not constitute substantial evidence to support the Board’s findings. Additionally, the Board’s position is weakened by its admission that economic need for the layoffs had been established.
The A.L.J. makes much of the fact that Luttrell, a recent retiree, at his request was rehired on February 10,1976. With respect to this, the A.L.J. states:
I am satisfied that Respondent did, in fact, have a policy of accepting retirees who desired to return to work. Indeed, in hiring Luttrell during a slack period, and allowing him to perform odd jobs and “make-work”, Respondent acted in a manner perfectly consistent with its policy of at least 20 years, namely to make-work for truckdrivers rather than lay them off during slow periods.
Possibly the reemployment of the retiree in light of the recent layoffs might not reflect good business judgment. However, such event was not induced by any discriminatory purpose and affords inadequate support for a finding of violation of the Act. The fact that in other years truck drivers were kept on the job and shifted to other work in slack seasons is not an adequate basis for upholding the violations charged.
The Board’s order is set aside, vacated, and enforcement is denied.

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