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:
MERCHANTS’ BANK & TRUST CO. v. PFLUG et al.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
May 6, 1925.
Rehearing Denied June 17, 1925.)
No. 3512.
1. Attorney and client @=70 — Defendant’s signature by attorney to unverified answer admitting simple contract creditor’s right to relief presumed authorized, where no objection was made for three years.
Where receivers were appointed on bill of simple contract creditor, and defendant’s answer admitted that plaintiff was entitled to relief prayed, defendant, could not avoid effect of answer, in giving court jurisdiction to appoint receiver, by claiming for first time and collaterally, three years after answer was filed, that it was not verified, and was signed by attorney; presumption being that signature was authorized.
2. Courts <©=322(2!) — Pleadings held to show controversy.
Bill, alleging that indebtedness of $4,500 was due and unpaid, and that amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeded $3,000, without alleging demand and refusal of payment, nor what it was for, and answer, admitting debt and right to relief prayed, and showing that demand would have been futile, held sufficiently to show controversy.
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Wisconsin.
T. M. Holland, of Eau Claire, Wis., for appellant.
Roy P. Wilcox, of Eau Claire, Wis., for appellees.
Before EVANS, PAGE, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PAGE, Circuit Judge.
On a bill by a simple contract creditor and answer by appellee, the defendant, admitting the allegations and that plaintiff was entitled to the relief prayed, the District Court appointed receivers and granted a general restraining order. The latter order was modified to permit appellant, not a party to the bill, to prosecute a suit then pending in the state court. A further modification to permit the institution of another suit was refused. Hence this appeal.
The only question, if any, presented by the record is, Was the court without jurisdiction to enter any order? In support of its claim that a court may not appoint a receiver at the suit of a simple contract creditor, appellant cites In re Metropolitan Ry. Receivership, 208 U. S. 90, 107, 28 S. Ct. 219, 52 L. Ed. 403; and Pusey & Jones Co. v. Hanssen, 261 U. S. 491, 43 S. Ct. 454, 67 L. Ed. 763, but admits that those cases recognize an exception where an answer is made, consenting to the receivership. Conceding such an answer was made in this case, appellant seeks to avoid its effect by saying thht it was signed by an attorney and was unverified. Inasmuch as neither the appellant nor any creditor has, during the three years which the answer has been on file,, questioned its sufficiency, it must be presumed that the signature was authorized. Moreover, after a lapse of nearly three years,, appellant here raises the question collaterally and for the first time. That may not be done.
The appellee averred an indebtedness of $4,500, to be due and unpaid. It also averred diversity of citizenship and made the usual allegation that the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeded $3,000. It did not aver a demand for and refusal to pay the amount. Neither did the bill state what the indebtedness was for. Eor these reasons, principally, it is urged that no “controversy” is shown by the pleadings. The answer admits the debt and the right to the relief prayed. There are allegations from which it appears, not only that frequent demands had probably been made, but also, and very conclusively, that a demand would have availed nothing. The averments were sufficient to show a “controversy.” In re Metropolitan Ry. Receivership, 208 U. S. 90, 107, 28 S. Ct. 219, 223, 52 L. Ed. 403.
The order of the District Court is affirmed.

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