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:
Walter MINIARD, Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Trustees, United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund of 1950, Appellees.
No. 20820.
United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued Oct. 13, 1967.
Decided Dec. 19, 1967.
Petition for Rehearing Denied Jan. 26, 1968.
Mr. Orlin L. Livdahl, Jr., with whom Mr. Julian H. Singman, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant. Mr. B. Michael Rauh, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellant.
Mr. Harold H. Bacon, Washington, D. C. with whom Messrs. Welly K. Hopkins and Joseph T. McFadden, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellees.
Before Edgerton, Senior Circuit Judge, and Burger and Tamm, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Appellant Miniard worked in the coal industry continuously from December 1926 until he retired in February 1959, with the exception of one intervening eight year period. That intervening period was from 1944 until 1952 when he was employed as a life insurance salesman. After his retirement and on the basis of that employment record, Miniard applied to the trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund of 1950 for a pension. When his application was denied, he brought suit in the District Court for damages and to compel his enrollment as a beneficiary of the Fund. Cross motions for summary judgment were made, the trustees’ motion was granted, and this appeal was taken.
An eligibility requirement — established and applied by resolution of the trustees — provides that an applicant must have retired or ceased work in the industry after May 28, 1946 and must have been employed in the industry immediately preceding May 29, 1946. A proviso follows that requirement: “if he had retired or ceased working in the Bituminous Coal Industry prior to May 29,1946, he shall be eligible for a pension only upon the completion of twenty (20) years’ service in the Bituminous Coal Industry * * * [and had met other requirements] subsequent to May 28, 1946.” Interpretation of this proviso is the base of this controversy.
Miniard concedes that he is not eligible for a pension under the initial clause of the contested resolution because he was not employed in the industry immediately preceding May 29, 1946. However, he contends that he is so clearly eligible under the proviso that a denial of his application by the trustees was arbitrary and capricious. He bases this contention on his interpretation of the proviso as requiring that the twenty years’ service be finished after May 28, 1946. The trustees, on the other hand, interpret the proviso as requiring that the twenty years’ service be both commenced and finished after May 28, 1946. As appellant recognizes, the scope of our review is limited to determining whether the trustees’ action was arbitrary or capricious.
The difficulty with appellant’s contention is that the facts do not support it. While the contested phrase in the resolution may be susceptible to the interpretation which he urges, it is at least equally susceptible to the trustees’ interpretation. Consequently, he calls upon us to decide which of the two competing interpretations is more reasonable or is more likely to have been intended. This we may not do. Since the trustees’ interpretation is a reasonable one, its application in this case was not arbitrary or capricious.
The judgment of the District Court granting appellees’ motion for summary judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
. The fund was created by the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, pursuant to authorization by Soction 302(c) (5) of the Taft-Hartley Act, 61 Stat. 157, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c) (5) (1964).
. The National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950 gives the trustees full authority within the terms of applicable law “with respect to questions of coverage and eligibility * * * * ” Joint Appendix at 12.
. It is not entirely clear from the record whether the trustees have consistently interpreted the resolution as they have here. Nevertheless, appellant conceded at oral argument that the interpretation they relied upon had been published by the trustees before his application was filed. Thus, no contention as to lack of notice of the interpretation is involved.
. Kosty v. Lewis, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 343, 346, 319 F.2d 744, 747 (1963); Danti v. Lewis, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 105, 108, 312 F.2d 345, 348 (1962).
. Apparently sensing this, appellant mounts an additional challenge to the trustees’ action — that their interpretation, even if not arbitrary or capricious, violates the labor laws of the United States. The allegation is founded on a union’s duty to represent, equally and without discrimination, the interests of all employees in a bargaining unit. Even though the fund here resulted from bargaining between the employers and the union, we believe that the traditional duty owed by a union to its members is not applicable. Bather, the trustees’ duties are those of fiduciaries because as trustees they perform a separate function and do not act as representatives of either the employers or the union. Accord, United Marine Division v. Essex Transportation Co., 216 F.2d 410, 412 (3rd Cir. 1954).

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