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:
Ralph W. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH SIDE LOAN COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 76-2108.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
Feb. 6, 1978.
Robert E. Steele, Jr., Macon, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.
W. Carl Reynolds, Macon, Ga., D. Lake Rumsey, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-ap-pellee.
Before BROWN, Chief Judge, THORN-BERRY and MORGAN, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Plaintiff Ralph Smith filed an action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia charging a violation of the Truth-in-Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq. The district court in a bench trial, ruled in favor of the defendant. Plaintiff filed an appeal, but before this appeal was heard, plaintiff reached a settlement with defendant in which he agreed to drop the suit against defendant in exchange for defendant renewing his loan. Plaintiff accordingly directed his attorney, Robert Steele, Jr., to stop all proceedings, including this appeal, against the defendant. The attorney, however, refused to do this and submitted a brief, as well as appearing at oral argument. He contended that on the merits the district court’s judgment conflicts with applicable Fifth Circuit precedent and should be reversed.
Defendant argues that plaintiff’s attorney is not a party to the suit and, therefore, has no standing to proceed with this action. The attorney contends, however, that he had a contingent fee agreement with his client and that this potential attorney’s fee, payable if he wins on the merits on appeal, provides him with a recognizable interest in the case sufficient to accord him standing.
We agree with defendant that Mr. Steele is not a party to this case and, thus, has no standing to continue this suit. In Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970), the Supreme Court articulated a two-pronged test to determine standing. Thus, a person asserting standing must show (1) that the challenged action has caused him injury in fact and (2) that if injury in fact is shown, that interest sought to be protected by the petitioner is within the zone of interests to be protected by the relevant statute. 397 U.S. at 152-53, 90 S.Ct. at 829-830, 25 L.Ed.2d at 187-88. See also Korioth v. Brisco, 523 F.2d 1271 (5th Cir. 1975); Persner v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 453 F.2d 916 (5th Cir. 1974). Clearly, an attorney’s interest in recovering a contingent fee is not within the zone of interests protected by the Truth-in-Lending statute. Also, while 15 U.S.C. § 1640(a)(2) does allow a court to award attorney’s fees to a successful party, such an award is the right of the party suing not the attorney representing him. Therefore, this provision does not accord the attorney a “party” status. We are sympathetic to Mr. Steele’s plight. That is, he prepared his client’s case for trial and had a good chance of obtaining a reversal of the district judge’s order on an appeal of the case on its merits. Yet, through no fault of his own, his client, upon the entreaty of the defendant foolishly circumvented his own counsel and negotiated a settlement with the defendant. Yet, while we disapprove of the defendant’s questionable conduct in this ease and of the plaintiff’s failure to consult his counsel before he entered into a settlement, we are nevertheless compelled to dismiss the appeal because Mr. Steele has no standing in the case.
DISMISSED.
The extent of the participation of defendant’s counsel in this transaction is unclear.

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: 99