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, v. WYOMING NATIONAL BANK OF CASPER, Defendant-Appellee, H. A. True, Jr., Impleaded-Defendant-Appellee, Riverton Auction and Livestock Co., Impleaded-Defendant-Appellant.
No. 74-1117.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
Argued Sept. 11, 1974.
Decided Nov. 4, 1974.
No appeal by, or appearance for, the United States.
Harold E. Meier, Lander, Wyo. (Meier & Gist, Lander, Wyo., on the brief), for impleaded-defendant-appellant Riverton Auction and Livestock Co.
William E. Barton, Casper, Wyo. (Claude W. Martin and Brown, Drew, Apostólos, Barton & Massey, Casper Wyo., on the brief), for defendant-ap-pellee Wyoming National Bank of Cas-per.
Houston G. Williams, Casper Wyo., (Frank D. Neville and Wehrli & Williams, Casper, Wyo., on the brief), for impleaded-defendant-appellee H. A. True, Jr.
Before BREITENSTEIN, SETH and McWilliams, circuit judges.
BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.
This controversy relates to the respective rights of creditors of a defunct packing company. The action was brought by the United States to enforce a tax levy. Jurisdiction lies under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1340 and 1345; see also 26 U.S.C. § 7402. The district court gave judgment for two secured creditors and against both the United States and the unpaid seller of certain cattle. The United States has not appealed. Our concern is with the claims asserted by the seller against the secured creditors. We affirm.
Appellees Wyoming National Bank of Casper and H. A. True were secured creditors of Wyoming Beef Packers, Inc. Appellant Riverton Auction and Livestock Co. on November 24, 1970, sold cattle to Packers. Packers took immediate possession of the cattle and they became part of its inventory. In payment for the cattle Packers gave River-ton two checks totalling $10,155.38. Bank refused to pay one check because of insufficient funds and the other because of an insufficient endorsement. On December 6 an audit disclosed that Packers was in default under its loan and security agreement with Bank. On the next day Packers turned all of its assets over to Bank. Riverton has never been paid for the cattle.
The United States sued Bank to enforce a tax levy against property of Packers held by Bank. Bank impleaded True and Riverton. Riverton filed a cross-claim against Bank and True. True filed a cross-claim against River-ton. Trial was to the court which made findings that are not here contested. Bank was adjudged a first, and True a second, secured creditor with rights superior to the United States. Riverton was relegated to the position of a general creditor.
On the day of trial, but before it began, Riverton moved under Rule 41, F.R.Civ.P., to dismiss its cross-claims against Bank and True, and moved under Rule 21, F.R.Civ.P., to be dropped as a party. The motions were opposed by the other parties and were denied by the court. Riverton claims that under Wyoming law it has a superior right to recover the unpaid purchase money, and desires to have that issue decided in state court.
The motions are interrelated and may well be considered together. River-ton was a proper party to the suit. In an action to enforce a tax lien “[a]ll persons having liens upon or claiming any interest in the property involved in such action shall be made parties thereto.” 26 U.S.C. § 7403(b). Riverton and True each claimed an interest in the property which Bank held and which the United States asserted was subject to its levy. Joinder was feasible and proper under Rule 19 because without River-ton and True in the suit Bank would be subjected to the “substantial risk of incurring double, multiple, or otherwise inconsistent obligations.”
Rule 41(c) provides that voluntary dismissal by a cross-claimant of a cross-claim is impermissible after a responsive pleading has been filed. Because responsive pleadings to Riverton’s cross-claim had been filed, dismissal could be had only by court order, Rule 41(a)(2), reviewable for abuse of discretion. Shaffer v. Evans, 10 Cir., 263 F.2d 134, 135. The grant of the motion to dismiss would not have taken River-ton out of the case because it was both an impleaded defendant and a cross-defendant.
Rule 21 permits a party to be dropped on motion. Here again the motion is addressed to the discretion of the court. 7 Fed.Pract. & Proc. § 1688, p. 342; see also Standard Industries, Inc. v. Mobil Oil Corporation, 10 Cir., 475 F.2d 220, 232, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 829, 94 S.Ct. 61, 38 L.Ed.2d 63. The court did not abuse its discretion in denying either the Rule 41 or the Rule 21 motion. Riverton was a proper party whose presence was needed to protect the rights of all parties and to accomplish the expeditious determination of the litigation. Ibid.
We turn to the merits. River-ton argues that the Packers and Stockyards Act, 7 U.S.C. § 181 et seq., and particularly regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture promulgated thereunder and appearing as 9 CFR §§ 201.43 (b) and 201.99, control. Reliance is placed on In re Samuels & Co., Inc., 5 Cir., 483 F.2d 557. That decision was reversed sub nom., Mahon v. Stowers, 416 U.S. 100, 94 S.Ct. 1626, 40 L.Ed.2d 79. Among other things, the Supreme Court said that the interests of cattle sellers “like that of similarly situated sellers, would depend for protection upon their taking of appropriate steps under the commercial law of the various States in which they did business.” 416 U.S. at 112, 94 S.Ct. at 1632, 40 L.Ed.2d at 88. The Court went on to say that a course of conduct mandated by the Act or regulations might “be relevant or even dispositive under state law.” 416 U.S. at 114, 94 S.Ct. at 1633, 40 L.Ed.2d at 89. In the case at bar we find nothing in the Act, or in the mentioned regulations, which is relevant to or dis-positive of the state law issues.
This brings us to Wyoming law. Riverton argues that federal courts are bound by a pertinent Wyoming decision. In a state court suit involving Bank, Packers, and an unpaid seller, the seller prevailed over secured creditors. The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed on the basis of an equally divided court. Wyoming National Bank of Casper v. Greenwald, Wyo., 506 P.2d 434. Two justices voted to reverse on the ground that summary judgment was improper because evidence should have been received as to Bank’s good faith and two voted to affirm on the ground that it was apparent as a matter of law that Bank was not a good faith purchaser.
The record before us establishes Bank’s good faith both in the receipt of its security interest and in its refusal to honor Packers’ checks payable to Riverton. The decision of the Wyoming Supreme Court is not pertinent. The proceedings of the state district court are not reported and are not before us. We have no way of knowing the facts before that court or the rationale of its decision. In Wyoming a district court decision does not have precedential value and is persuasive only to the extent of its underlying logic. State Board of Equalization v. Courtesy Motors, Inc., Wyo., 362 P.2d 134, 135. A federal court need not follow state decisions which are not precedents in the state itself. King v. Order of United Commercial Travelers of America, 333 U.S. 153, 160-161, 68 S.Ct. 488, 92 L.Ed. 608. Absent a controlling Wyoming decision, we must apply that state’s law as we see it.
The issues require consideration of the Wyoming version of the Uniform Commercial Code. See Wyo.Stat., 1973 Cum.Supp. Chap. 22, §§ 34-1-101 to 34-10-105. The trial court’s finding of good faith on the part of Bank is not attacked on this appeal. When Packers took possession of the cattle, it had the power to transfer good title to Bank, a good faith purchaser for value, see § 34-2-403(1). A purchaser is one who takes by purchase. § 34-1-201(33). Purchase includes taking by mortgage, pledge, lien or any other voluntary transaction creating an interest in property. § 34-1-201(32). A person gives value for rights if he acquires them as security for, or in partial satisfaction of, a pre-existing claim. § 34-1-201(44) (b). The transfer occurred when Packers took possession of the cattle because Bank’s security interest then attached. See § 34-9-204; First National Bank of Elkhart County v. Smoker, Ind.App., 286 N.E.2d 203, 209. The only title interest which Riverton could retain was a security interest. See § 34-2-401(1).
The trial court found that when Packers took possession of the cattle they became part of its inventory. Riv-erton does not attack the validity of the security agreements held by Bank and True. The inventoried cattle, and the proceeds therefrom, were subject to those agreements. See § 34-9-306. Riverton does not claim a security interest for itself. Rather, it argues that UCC must be liberally construed, see § 34-1-102(1), and in the absence of specific provisions resort must be had to principles of law and equity. . It says that as a defrauded seller its rights are superior to those of Bank and True. The difficulty is that § 34-2-702(2) provides that on a credit sale to an insolvent buyer, seller has 10 days to make written demand for reclamation and: “Except as provided in this subsection the seller may not base a right to reclaim goods on the buyer’s fraudulent or innocent misrepresentation of solvency or of intent to pay.” This eliminates any common-law claim by a defrauded seller. Riverton made no demand for reclamation within the 10-day period provided by § 34-2-702(2).
Riverton relies on § 34-2-507 (2), which provides that: “Where payment is due and demanded on the delivery to the buyer of goods * * * his right as against the seller to retain or dispose of them is conditional upon his making the payment due.” The provision applies between seller and buyer. We are concerned with the respective rights of seller and holders of security interests.
Although Riverton does not now assert a security interest, it should be noted that Riverton made no effort to comply with the provisions of § 34-9-312(3) and (4) relating to the respective priorities of a purchase money security interest and a conflicting security interest.
Riverton did not take advantage of the rights which it had under Wyoming law and must now yield to the superior rights of Bank and True. The United States District Judge for Wyoming so held. In the absence of a controlling state decision, his determination of the law of that state is most persuasive. Julander v. Ford Motor Co., 10 Cir., 488 F.2d 839, 844.
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: 1