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 "the federal government, its agencies, and officials". 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:
GRIFFIN v. UNITED STATES.
No. 4727.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
June 25, 1932.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 3, 1032.
Charles S. Andrus and Lawrence Hoff, both of Springfield, 111., and Edward H. S. Martin, of Chicago, 111., for appellant.
Frank K. Lemon, U. S. Atty., and James P. Dillie, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Springfield, 111., William Wolff Smith, Sp. Counsel, Veterans’ Administration, and Lawrence A. Lawlor, Attorney, Veterans’ Administration, both of Washington, D. C.
Before ALSOJIULER, EVANS, and SPARKS, Circuit Judges.
SPARKS, Circuit Judge.
This action was brought to recover total permanent disability installments under appellant’s two war risk insurance contracts. The government filed a plea to the petition, in which it is alleged that when the suit was instituted appellant’s claim under said policies was, and still is, pending in the United States Veterans’ Bureau, without ever having been denied by the director thereof or by any one acting in Ms name or on an appeal to the director, and for that reason there has never been any disagreement between the Bureau and appellant with, relation to the claim as contemplated by section 19 of the World War Veterans’ Act of 1924, c. 320, 43 Stat. 612, as amended July 3, 1930, section 4, e. 849, 46 Stat. 992 (38 USCA § 445).
That pait of section 19 wMch is pertinent to the questions presented is as follows: “In the event of disagreement as to claim, including claim for refund of premiums, under a contract of insurance between the burean and any person or persons claiming thereunder an action on the claim may be brought against the United States * * * in the * * * district court of the United States in and for the district in which such persons or any one of them resides, and jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon such courts to hear and determine all such controversies. * * * The term ‘disagreement’ means a denial of the claim by the director or some one acting in Ms name on an appeal to the director. This section, as amended, with the exception of this X>aragraph, shall apply to all suits now pending against the United States under the provisions of the War Risk Insurance Act, as amended, or this chapter [the World War Veterans’ Act, 1924, as amended].”
To appellee’s |>lea to the petition appellant replied that his claim was mailed to the Bureau on September 30, 1930; that on October 17, 1930, the Bureau notified him that its Rating Board had denied the claim on October 13; that on October 21, 1930, he appealed in writing to the Central Board of Appeals, and on the following day the Bureau notified him that the file in his claim would he forwarded on appeal; that on December 18, 1930, he was notified by the Bureau that the Central Board had decided adversely to his claim; that on December 23, 1930; he ap-X>ealed to the Council on Appeals and to the director of the Bureau and requested that, in case of an adverse decision, the matter be forwarded to the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs for his ultimate decision; that on January 17, 1931, appellant was notified by the Burean that the file was being forwarded to the Council on Appeals; that on February 11, 1931, he sent to said administrator a written demand for a final decision on the claim, and notified the administrator that if appellant did not receive notice of final action on Ms claim wilhin sixty days from February 11,1931, he would institute suit. Copies of this demand wore sent to the regional office and to the director of the Bureau. There was no subsequent aetion by the government or any of its agencies on appellant’s claim, and this action was instituted on June 1, 193L
To appellant’s replication the government filed a demurrer and it was sustained.
The statute referred to is quite plain to the effect that no action shall be instituted upon the elaim until there has been a disagreement between the Bureau and claimant respecting its allowance. The statute is also quite clear that the word “ ‘disagreement’ means a denial of the claim by the director or some one acting in his name on an appeal to the director.” We do not understand that appellant controverts the meaning of the statute in this respect. His contention is that arbitrary power is not thereby granted the director to defeat a claim by inactivity, but that continued inactivity on director’s part for more than a reasonable time will be construed by the courts to amount to a denial.
We do not wish to be considered as either conceding or denying the soundness of appellant’s contention, but, if it be sound, it must be by virtue of the fact that director’s failure to act. was for a longer time than was reasonably necessary under the circumstances. We think the replication is deficient in this respect, and that the demurrer was properly sustained. Appellant’s conclusion that the delay was unreasonable is based entirely upon the. several dates of the different actions upon his claim by the various .departments . of the Bureau. This we think is not sufficient. Being charged with general knowledge of the magnitude of that department, arid the enormous and continually increasing number of claims before it, we are unable to say, without other factual enlightenment, that sixty days is a reasonable time within which the director and those acting under him shall dispose of all appeals presented to him. Indeed, the facts involved in this class of cases are usually so radically different that it would be impossible to fix a limit that would be just to claimants or to the department.
Upon appellant’s failure to plead over and his election to stand on his replication, judgment was entere^ in favor of appellee on its plea “in bar of this action.”
Perhaps this judgment was not intended to preclude appellant from prosecuting his original elaim, and certainly he is entitled to that right. This action, however, seeks judgment on his original claim, and, as a matter of precaution, the ruling of the District Court in sustaining the demurrer to the replication and rendering judgment for appellee is affirmed, with the exception of that part of the judgment which states that it shall be in bar of this action. The cause is remanded, with instructions to delete the words “in bar of this action,” and to insert in lieu thereof a provision that the judgment shall not preclude appellant from further prosecution of his original claim.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officialss"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 0