opinion: John B. KOTMAIR, Jr., dba (Sole owner of Free State Home Builders, Inc.), Appellant, v. D. GRAY et al., Appellees.
  No. 74-1716.
  United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
  Submitted Sept. 26, 1974.
  Decided Nov. 8, 1974.
  John B. Kotmair, Jr., on brief for appellant.
  George Beall, U. S. Atty., Donald H. Feige, Asst. U. S. Atty., M. King Hill, Jr., and Michael A. Pretl, Baltimore, Md., on brief for appellees.
  Before CRAVEN, BUTZNER and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.
  PER CURIAM:
  John B. Kotmair filed a pro se complaint against D. Gray and Gale Youn-kins, officers of the Internal Revenue Service, and certain employees of the Carroll County Bank and Trust Co. charging them with violating a number of his constitutional rights while acting under color of state law (42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985) and seeking $20,000 general and $60,000 punitive damages against each defendant. This action arose when Free State Home Builders, Inc., a corporation wholly owned by Kot-mair, incurred a penalty of $26.88 for late payment of $806.46 Federal Employment Taxes. Kotmair received a notice of the deficiency on February 19, 1973, and two letters entitled “Final Notice Before Seizure” on May 3 and August 8, 1973. These notices explained that if the amount due was not paid within 10 days, Free State’s assets could be levied upon without further notice. Appellant explained to the IRS agents and the bank in which Free State had an account that if they levied upon or permitted levy upon Free State’s account, he would bring legal action against them. The account was levied upon; the amount levied was transferred from the bank to the government; and this suit was brought. The district court, on a motion by the defendants, granted summary judgment, and we affirm.
  In his complaint, appellant attacks the constitutionality of 26 U.S.C. § 6331, which authorized collection of overdue taxes by levy and seizure. However, a determination of that statute’s constitutionality is not necessary to a decision of the instant appeal. We need note only that the defendants, in seizing and paying the penalty, acted within their official scope of duty and in good faith reliance upon the law, see Eslinger v. Thomas, 476 F.2d 225 (4th Cir. 1973), and therefore are not subject to suit for their actions. Barr v. Mateo, 360 U.S. 564, 79 S.Ct. 1335, 3 L.Ed.2d 1434 (1959). In any event, there was no action under color of state law. Rather, the IRS agents acted under federal law, and the bank employees acted as private citizens obeying the federal law. Thus, none of the defendants would be subject to suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 even had their actions not been protected.
  Although appellant contends that there are important issues of fact to be decided, summary judgment is appropriate where, as is the ease in the instant action, one party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, Fed.R.Civ. P., Rule 56; for it is clear that even were appellant to prove all of the facts which he has alleged, he would not be entitled to judgment in this case.
  Accordingly, we dispense with oral argument and the judgment of the District Court is affirmed.
  Affirmed.
instruction: 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.
  Your task is to identify the state of the first listed state or local government agency that is an appellant.
choices: not Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachussets Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New New New New North North Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode South South Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Wisconsin Wyoming Virgin Puerto District Guam not Panama