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:
Arthur and Hilda HAFFER, Appellants, v. Alvin A. VOIT and The Mengel Company, et al., Appellees. Ann F. AMES, Appellant, v. Alvin A. VOIT and The Mengel Company, et al., Appellees.
No. 12215.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Feb. 7, 1955.
L. Lyne Smith, Jr. (of Woodward, Hob-son & Fulton), Louisville, Ky., Sidney L. Garwin, and Israel Beckhardt, New York City, for appellants.
Charles G. Middleton, Leo T. Wolford, and Edwin G. Middleton, Louisville, Ky. (Middleton, Seelbach, Wolford, Willis & Cochran, Louisville, Ky., of counsel), for appellees.
Before ALLEN, MILLER and STEWART, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
This case came on to be heard upon the record and briefs and oral argument of counsel:
And it appearing that plaintiffs herein, minority stockholders in The Mengel Company, a New Jersey corporation, have filed a derivative action against the corporation and its president attacking the revision on October 21,1949, of an option by the corporation’s directors without approval of the stockholders;
And it appearing that said revised option provided in substance for the sale to the president of 10,000 shares of unissued common stock of the corporation to be paid for by the president’s demand note for $100,000, the stock to be pledged as collateral, the dividends paid on such shares to be applied to payment on the note, and the corporation to have no recourse against the president on the note except to the extent of the stock deposited as collateral;
And it appearing that on October 26, 1949, the president exercised the option in accordance with the terms thereof;
And it appearing that the stockholders were fully apprised through the proxy dated April 4, 1950, sent them for the stockholders’ meeting, of the terms of the said revised option;
And it appearing that said revised option was authorized by 14:9-1 (a), Revised Statutes of New Jersey, 1937, and by 14:9-4 as amended in 1948, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement, New Jersey, 1948, N.J.S.A.;
And it appearing that while under the amended statute of 1948 the revised option was subject to be altered, changed or repealed by the stockholders, no such action was taken by the stockholders ;
And it appearing that plaintiffs made no earnest and honest effort to secure from the stockholders such action as they desired, Cf. Rule 23(b) Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.; Long v. Stites, 6 Cir., 88 F.2d 554;
And it appearing that plaintiffs’ explanation that they made no effort to secure such action from the stockholders upon the ground, among others, that they were widely scattered and that there would be expense and delay incident to such demand, is legally insufficient. Bruce & Co. v. Bothwell, D.C., 8 F.R.D. 45. Cf. Stone v. Holly Hill Fruit Products, Inc., 5 Cir., 56 F.2d 553:
It is ordered that the judgment of the District Court be and it hereby is affirmed for the reasons stated in the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the District Court entered January 13, 1954.

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: 3