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:
Thomas F. FRADY, Appellant, v. Patricia Roberts HARRIS, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appellee.
No. 80-1449.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Argued Jan. 9, 1981.
Decided April 9, 1981.
George H. Thomason, Spartanburg, S. C. (Thomason & French, Spartanburg, S. C., on brief), for appellant.
Holly A. Grimes, Asst. Regional Atty., Dept, of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Ga. (Thomas E. Lydon, Jr., U. S. Atty., Columbia, S. C., Carl H. Harper, Regional Atty., Dept, of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Ga., on brief), for appellee.
Before RUSSELL, HALL, and MURNA-GHAN, Circuit Judges.
MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:
Once again we confront the reality that the scope of our review of a decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services holding an applicant for social security benefits not to have qualified is extremely limited. If there is substantial evidence to support the decision, it is our duty to affirm without regard to what result we would have preferred to reach ourselves, were we dealing with the issue afresh. 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).
The medical evidence, while conflicting, supported the conclusion that the applicant Frady was possessed of capabilities sufficient to permit him to perform “sedentary work” as that term is defined in the Secretary’s regulations, 20 C.F.R. § 404.1510(b).
The record also contains evidence permitting the Secretary’s finding that the applicant’s previous employment, especially as the owner of a tree service and right-of-way contractor, imparted skills that were transferable. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1513, Rule 201.03, Table No. 1 of Appendix 2, Subpart P; 20 C.F.R. § 404.1511(e).
That being so, and the existence in the economy of jobs which a person with such qualifications could fill being established by administrative notice, see 20 C.F.R. § 404.-1509, we are left with no alternative but to affirm the Secretary’s determination that the applicant was not disabled, for purposes of determining his eligibility for regular disability benefits. Stephens v. Harris, 628 F.2d 1353 (5th Cir. 1980) (unpublished opinion); Smith v. Harris, W.D.Tex. No. MO-80-CA-27 (Nov. 7, 1980); Lowery v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, D.S. Car. No. 79-1715-8 (Oct. 24, 1980); Melvin v. Harris, M.D.Tenn. No. 79-3552 (July 15, 1980); Stallings v. Harris, 493 F.Supp. 956, 959 (W.D.Tenn.1980); cf. McLamore v. Weinberger, 538 F.2d 572 (4th Cir. 1976); but see Schmidt v. Harris, N.D.Iowa, No. C 79-2080 (June 19, 1980) (“The Secretary should not be permitted to, in effect, manufacture her own evidence.”); Williams v. Harris, W.D.N.Car., 500 F.Supp. 214 (1980); Santise v. Harris, D.N.J. No. 80-131, 501 F.Supp. 274 (1980); Ockunzzi v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, M.D.Pa. No. 79-1292 (Nov. 18, 1980); Broz v. Harris, S.D.Ala. No. 80-0156-H (Dec. 1, 1980) (appeal pending); Holmes v. Harris, S.D.Ala. No. 79-0730-H (Dec. 11, 1980) (appeal pending).
It is understandable that, in an individual case like that of Thomas Frady, the use of administrative tables (commonly called the “grid”), in lieu of live testimony from a vocational expert, may appear to the claimant a lessening of attention, a lowering of quality in the services performed by the agency, uniformly to the detriment of applicants. That overlooks, however, that measurement by the regulations may, in fact, in many cases enhance the likelihood of qualification by applicants for benefits. E. g. Hicks v. Califano, 600 F.2d 1048, 1050 (4th Cir. 1979); Vega v. Harris, 636 F.2d 900 (2d Cir. 1981) (“But the Secretary cannot have it both ways. She cannot escape what may be the conclusive effect of the rules in this case while depending on them to guide and control the discretion of the ALJs in other cases.”).
It is important to realize that the decision of the Secretary proceeds from broadly based regulatory “medical vocational guidelines” dealing with what constitutes capacity to perform and with the availability of particular types of employment. A decision such as the present one is not, therefore, to be confused with one where the attempt to rely on administrative notice in lieu of expert testimony antedated adoption of the new regulatory guidelines, see Taylor v. Weinberger, 512 F.2d 664, 668 (4th Cir. 1975), contrast Terry v. Harris, S.D.Ohio No. C-2-80-145 (Dec. 15, 1980); Vincent v. Harris, W.D.Ky. No. 79-0050 — BG (Dec. 24, 1980). Nor is the present case one where the administrative notice was attempted, not on the basis of the broad regulations, but in reliance on some nonspecific knowledge of the ALJ, see Wilson v. Califano, 617 F.2d 1050, 1053 (4th Cir. 1980).
AFFIRMED.
. Sedentary work. Sedentary work entails lifting 10 pounds maximum and occasionally lifting or carrying such articles as dockets (e. g., files), ledgers, and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met.
. The previous employment involved supervising the work of numerous employees (in excess of 100).
. We do not mean to suggest that in every case the Secretary can altogether dispense with vocational expert testimony to establish the existence of work in the national economy which an applicant was capable of performing. See Gillstrap v. Harris, N.D.Ga. No. C 79-1684A (Dec. 5, 1980); Moguez v. Harris, D.Colo. No. 80-A-170 (Oct. 20, 1980); Cannon v. Harris, M.D.N.Car. No. C-79-723S (Sept. 25, 1980); Phillips v. Harris, 488 F.Supp. 1161 (W.D.W. Va.1980) (holding the Secretary’s determination unsupported by substantial evidence, but specifying: “The opinion of the court should not be read to indicate that testimony of vocational experts is always necessary.... ”); Long v. Harris, W.D.Va. No. 79-0214R (Nov. 28, 1979). We decide only the case immediately before us.
. The two Alabama district court cases, closely interrelated, rely, to a prominant degree, on a supposed failure of the Secretary’s regulations to comply with Administrative Procedure Act requirements. No such attack was mounted in the present case. Nor did Frady argue that notice by the ALJ of an intention to rely on administrative notice was insufficient. Cf. Fruge v. Harris, 631 F.2d 1244 (5th Cir. 1980); Mason v. Harris, N.D.Tex. No. 3-80-0873-H (Dec. 23, 1980).
. Adopted February 26, 1979.

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: 0