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 respondents in the case that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the respondent is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

Opinion:
Ardis O. SMART, Appellant, v. Robert A. HEINZE, Warden, Folsom Prison, Represa, California, Appellee.
No. 19735.
United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.
May 19, 1965.
Rehearing Denied June 21,1965.
Ardis Oliver Smart, in pro. per. Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen., of Cal., Doris H. Maier, Asst. Atty. Gen., of Cal., Edsel W. Haws, Deputy Atty. Gen., of Cal., Sacramento, Cal., for appellee.
Before HAMLIN, BROWNING and DUNIWAY, Circuit Judges.
HAMLIN, Circuit Judge.
Appellant is a prisoner incarcerated in Folsom Prison. On July 20, 1964, appellant filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division, pursuant to the Civil Rights Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking damages and other equitable relief against the warden of Folsom Prison, appellee herein. In his complaint it is alleged that appellant prepared a petition for habeas corpus to be submitted to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division; that the resident notary public at the prison refused to notarize the petition upon the ground that it was not prepared on forms as required by Rule ND5 of the Rules of Practice of that court; that thereafter appellant attempted to mail the petition without notarization; and that the petition was not mailed, but was returned to him by prison officials on the ground that it did not comply with the requirements of Rule ND5 in that it was not prepared in the questionnaire form required by the Rule. At the time of filing of the complaint in the district court, appellant also moved for permission to proceed in forma pauperis, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915. On July 20, 1964, the District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division, entered its memorandum decision and order denying appellant’s motion to proceed with the action in for-ma pauperis. The court, by order dated July 29, 1964, denied appellant’s motion for a rehearing. This court on December 7, 1964, authorized appellant to prosecute this appeal in forma pauperis, and has jurisdiction to hear this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
To proceed in forma pauperis is a privilege not a rig0ht. Clough v. Hunter, 191 F.2d 516, (10th Cir. 1951). It is the duty of the District Court to examine any application for leave to proceed in forma pauperis to determine whether the proposed proceeding has merit and if it appears that the proceeding is without merit, the court is bound to deny a motion seeking leave to proceed in forma pauperis. Tate v. People, et al., 187 F.2d 98 (9th Cir. 1951); Huffman v. Smith, 172 F.2d 129 (9th Cir., 1949); Meek v. City of Sacramento, 132 F.Supp. 546 (N.D.Cal.1955).
The granting or refusing of permission to proceed in forma pauperis is a matter committed to the sound discretion of the district court. Weller v. Dickson, 314 F.2d 598 (9th Cir. 1963). The latitude of discretion accorded the ruling of the district court in such matters is especially broad in civil actions by prisoners against their wardens and other officials connected with the institution in which they are incarcerated.
The substance of appellant’s complaint is that the warden of Folsom Prison will not permit application for writs of habeas corpus to be notarized or mailed unless they are completed on forms provided under Rule ND5 of the District Court for the Northern District of California. Rule ND5 was adopted by that court on April 20, 1964, and provides that petitions for a writ of habeas corpus by persons in state custody shall be on forms supplied by the court. This rule, as are all such local rules of the various district courts, was promulgated pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2071 and Rule 83 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The authority to promulgate a rule such as Rule ND5 and its validity is beyond dispute.
The petition for a writ of habeas corpus which petitioner presented for notarization and mailing was not on the forms prescribed by the rules of the district court. Instead of using the forms therefor as provided by the rule, appellant filed a suit for damages against the warden.
The court below, in its memorandum decision and order stated:
“Rule ND5 was imposed by this Court, not the defendant, and the assailed conduct on the part of defendant was solely for the purposes of complying with and implementing this Court’s resolution. Accordingly, no valid claim has been stated against the defendant.”
We agree. We see no impropriety in the action of the prison officials in this case in following the rules of the court. Appellant’s complaint was patently frivolous. We hold that the district court did not abuse its broad discretion in denying appellant’s motion to proceed in forma pawperis.
Judgment affirmed.
. Rule ND5 of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Northern Division.
“1. Petitions for a writ of habeas corpus and motions filed in the Northern Division of this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (attacking a sentence imposed by this Court), by persons in custody, shall be typewritten (unless it is affirmatively made to appear that typing facilities are not available), signed and verified. Such petitions and motions shall be on forms supplied by the Court, copies of which are hereto appended. The instructions on said forms shall be strictly followed.
“2. Petitions and motions shall be addressed to the Clerk of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District, Northern Division, 650"Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, California. Petitioners shall send to the Clerk an original and one copy of the completed petition or motion form. No petition or motion shall be addressed to an individual judge, petitions shall be directed to the Clerk of the Court for assignment pursuant to the rules of this Court, provided that motions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 shall, if possible, be assigned to the sentencing judge.”
. Weller v. Dickson, supra. See the concurring opinion by Duniway, Circuit Judge, therein, where it is stated—
“ * * * [W] hen £he action is a civil suit by a state prisoner against his jailers, whether under the Civil Rights Act or not. the district court should have, and has, a broad discretion, and can deny leave to proceed in forma pauperis even though the complaint does state a claim for relief, if the court is of the opinion that the plaintiff’s chances of ultimate success are slight.”
. Appellant has filed in this court a motion “to declare Rule ND5 unconstitutional and repugnant to Federal Court Rules,” which motion has been denied.

Question: What is the total number of respondents in the case that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 1