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 "natural persons". 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:
Julius HELLMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COLONIAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 71-1143.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
March 19, 1973.
L. R. Bretz (argued), Great Falls, Mont., for plaintiff-appellant.
Clayton R. Herron (argued), Helena, Mont., Patrick F. Hooks, Townsend, Mont., for defendant-appellee.
Before BARNES and DUNIWAY, Circuit Judges, and PECKHAM, District Judge.
Honorable Robert F. Peckham, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation.
PER CURIAM:
In this action, plaintiff was injured in an accident occasioned by a runaway Mack tractor and trailer operated in Montana by a driver for Produce Dispatch, Inc., a California Corporation, who had obtained the use of the truck from one Bye, a former owner of the truck, who, with the new owner’s permission, had obtained control and possession of the truck, and had rented the truck out to other persons, from time to time.
The owner of the truck, one Kuffel, a resident of the state of California, had insured the truck with the defendant Colonial Insurance Company. The insurance policy herein limited the insurer’s liability to the use of the insured vehicle “within the state of California . and any other use or operation beyond the territorial limitations of this policy shall make it void.” (Ex. 1, Tr. 2).
There was testimony that the truck had once been used outside the State of California (in Nevada) for five or ten miles, but the owner, Kuffel, testified he knew of this only after the fact. He had no knowledge the truck was being used in Montana, and Bye had denied it was in Montana on the day of the accident, in a conversation with Kuffel in Los, Angeles on that day.
The sole issue before us is whether the decision and judgment of the District Court is to be affirmed. Such a judgment is not to be disturbed if supported by substantial evidence and is not erroneous as a matter of law. United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); Glens Falls Ind. Co. v. United States, 229 F.2d 370, 373 (9th Cir. 1955).
While there was no omnibus clause in the policy as written, the District Court held the territorial exclusion was void, calling into effect the provisions of both Sec. 415 of the California Vehicle Code (now Sec. 16451 in Financial Responsibility Section of that Code), and the vicarious liability statute (Sec. 17150 of California Vehicle Code). Nevertheless, said sections do not aid plaintiff, for each section specifies they are applicable only if the use of the vehicle is “with the permission, express or implied, of the owner.” By the court’s findings III and VIII he ruled “there had been no permission, express or implied, of the owner” to the use in Montana. These findings are not attacked, but appellant urges that the “liberal” or Arizona rule that a “general consent” is sufficient to govern the California Vehicle Code, rather than the “conservative” view, that if no consent is proved for the vehicle’s use outside the state, then no coverage exists. The latter is the California view, Henrietta v. Evans, 10 Cal.2d 526, 75 P.2d 1051 (1938); Rose v. Porter, 101 Cal. App.2d 333, 225 P.2d 245 (1950).
The burden of proof to establish requisite permission is on the plaintiff, and is a question of fact. Garmon v. Sebastian, 181 Cal.App.2d 254, 5 Cal.Rptr. 101 (1960); Couch on Insurance, § 45.460, p. 447.
The judgment of the district court is not erroneous as a matter of law, and we are bound by its findings of fact which have substantial support in the record before us. We need not discuss other points.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 1