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:
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. LAND AND BUILDING AT 2 BURDITT STREET, EVERETT, MASSACHUSETTS, Defendant, Appellee, Appeal of David PASCARELLA, Claimant, Appellant.
No. 90-1309.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.
Heard Sept. 6, 1990.
Decided Jan. 30, 1991.
Frances L. Robinson, for claimant, appellant.
Christopher F. Bator, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Wayne A. Budd, U.S. Atty., was on brief for plaintiff, appellee.
Before BREYER, Chief Judge, VAN GRAAFEILAND, Senior Circuit Judge, and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.
Of the Second Circuit, sitting by designation.
VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge.
David Pascarella appeals from a summary judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granting forfeiture to the government of Pascarella’s house and lot on Burditt Street in Everett, Massachusetts. The forfeiture proceeding was brought pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881(a)(7), which makes subject to forfeiture “[a]ll real property ... which is used ... to facilitate the commission of a violation of [the Controlled Substances Act] punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment. ...”
The drug transactions giving rise to the forfeiture occurred during December 1988 and January 1989. Prior to that time, Pas-carella, a carpenter by trade, had begun remodelling the Burditt Street house to change it from a one-family to a two-family dwelling. Despite his arrest on January 10, 1989, Pascarella continued working on the house. Between January 10 and the commencement of the forfeiture action on October 6, 1989, Pascarella had installed improvements allegedly costing $11,972 and had performed labor having an estimated worth of $30,678.90. Pascarella does not contest in this court the government’s right to bring the forfeiture action but contends that the improvements made after January 10, 1989 did not fall within the section 881(a)(7) definition of real property which is used to facilitate a violation of the Controlled Substances Act. He therefore seeks reimbursement from the government for the value of his improvements. Neither party has provided the court with informative precedent in this unusual case, and our own research has been equally unproductive. However, we are satisfied that the district court reached the correct result in summarily denying Pascarella’s claim.
Pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881(h), all “right, title, and interest” in Pascarella’s property vested in the United States upon commission of the acts giving rise to the forfeiture. In actuality, this ownership was “fictive” in nature and was not consummated until the judgment of forfeiture was entered. See Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States, 491 U.S. 617, 109 S.Ct. 2646, 2653, 105 L.Ed.2d 528 (1989); id. 109 S.Ct. at 2672, 2676-77 (Blackmun, J., dissenting). The traditional theory upon which this statutory scheme is based is that the property itself was guilty of wrongdoing and was “tainted” because of its connection with the alleged offense. Caplin & Drysdale, supra, 109 S.Ct. at 2653; United States v. United States Coin & Currency, 401 U.S. 715, 719-20, 91 S.Ct. 1041, 1043-44, 28 L.Ed.2d 434 (1971). So long as this taint existed, the defendant, who was responsible for its creation, could not retain or acquire any interest in the property. Section 881(a) specifically provides that, where properties are subject to forfeiture, “no property right shall exist in them.” As this court stated in United States v. Kingsley, 851 F.2d 16 (1st Cir.1988), prior to the time of forfeiture, the property is “in a kind of limbo — belonging totally to neither the defendant nor the government_” Id. at 20.
In view of section 881’s broad language, the parties’ extensive, discussion of Massachusetts’ law of fixtures is of little relevance. The law is well settled that, in a forfeiture proceeding under section 881(a)(7), property in its entirety is forfeitable even if only a portion of it was used for illegal purposes. See, e.g., United States v. A Parcel of Land, 884 F.2d 41, 44-45 (1st Cir.1989); United States v. Harris, 903 F.2d 770, 777 (10th Cir.1990). This “is justifiable as a means of remedying the government’s injury and loss” resulting from the “ravages of drugs upon our nation.” United States v. A Parcel of Land, supra, 884 F.2d at 44. It is undisputed that, when the forfeiture proceeding was brought against Pascarella’s property, the improvements made by Pascarella already had become an integral part of his house, a “tainted” property under the federal statute. It therefore was subject to forfeiture.
The same rule might not apply to a proceeding under section 881(a)(6), which provides for the forfeiture of things of value purchased with proceeds of the unlawful sale of a controlled substance. See United States v. Pole No. 3172, Hopkinton, 852 F.2d 636, 639-41 (1st Cir.1988); United States v. One 1980 Rolls Royce, 905 F.2d 89, 90-92 (5th Cir.1990); United States v. One Parcel of Real Property, 705 F.Supp. 710, 715 (D.R.I.1989). However, we are concerned here with subdivision (a)(7) of section 881, not subdivision (a)(6).
The district court held that the government did not unreasonably delay in bringing its forfeiture action. We agree. However, we question whether this issue always can be disposed of by simply referring, as the district court did, to the five-year statute of limitation contained in 19 U.S.C. § 1621 and also in 28 U.S.C. § 2462. These sections provide that a forfeiture action cannot be brought after a lapse of five years; not that forfeiture may be commenced at any time within five years.
Because section 881 forfeitures are civil in nature, the duration of the period of taint or limbo is not determined by the outcome of related criminal proceedings against the defendant title holder. One Lot Emerald Cut Stones and One Ring v. United States, 409 U.S. 232, 234-37, 93 S.Ct. 489, 491-93, 34 L.Ed.2d 438 (1972); United States v. One 1974 Porsche, 682 F.2d 283, 285 (1st Cir.1982). This means that a forfeiture proceeding may be brought against a property the owner of which already has been tried and acquitted on the charge giving rise to the forfeiture or who never may be tried on that charge. See United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U.S. 354, 366, 104 S.Ct. 1099, 1107, 79 L.Ed.2d 361 (1984). Given this lack of association, an unexplained delay of up to five years in asserting and adjudicating the existence and validity of a retroactive property taint and limbo might well have due process implications. See United States v. One Motor Yacht Named Mercury, 527 F.2d 1112, 1114 (1st Cir.1975); United States v. Laurenti, 581 F.2d 37, 41-42 n. 15 (2d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 958, 99 S.Ct. 1499, 59 L.Ed.2d 771 (1979); Sarkisian v. United States, 472 F.2d 468, 471-72 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 976, 94 S.Ct. 291, 38 L.Ed.2d 219 (1973). There are, however, no due process problems in the instant case.
During oral argument, counsel for the government referred to 19 U.S.C. § 1618 as a possible source of relief from what Pas-carella contends is an inequitable result. This section, as interpreted by pertinent rules (28 C.F.R. Part 9), provides for possible mitigation of forfeiture in appropriate cases upon application to the United States Attorney General. See United States v. One Clipper Bow Ketch Nisku, 548 F.2d 8, 12 (1st Cir.1977). We have not been asked to determine whether this administrative remedy is available to Pascarella, and, because of the absence of any reference thereto in the record and briefs now before us, we will not attempt to do so.
The judgment 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: 0