opinion: UNITED STATES of America v. Joseph FLENORY, Appellant.
  No. 88-3817.
  United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
  Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6) May 18, 1989.
  Decided May 26, 1989.
  George E. Schumacher, Federal Public Defender, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellant, Joseph Flenory.
  Charles D. Sheehy, Acting U.S. Atty., Bonnie R. Schlueter, Asst. U.S. Atty., Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellee, U.S.
  Before GIBBONS, Chief Judge, MANSMANN and ALDISERT, Circuit Judges.
  OPINION OF THE COURT
  GIBBONS, Chief Judge:
  Joseph Flenory appeals from an order denying a Fed.R.Crim.P. 35 motion. As a result of a plea bargain in 1976, he was sentenced to six years and nine months for violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), a sentence which included a three-year special parole term. He contends, and for purposes of this appeal we assume, that the federal sentence was to be concurrent with, and not exceeding, a state court sentence and that the purpose of the plea agreement was to avoid the risk of state incarceration because of his cooperation in an investigation.
  Flenory was released by the federal authorities in March of 1981. He was taken into state custody and served part of his 1976 state sentence. He was paroled by the state authorities, and he began serving his three-year federal parole term on January 14,1983. In 1984 he was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, indecent assault and theft by deception. The state court sentenced him to two one- to two-year concurrent terms on these charges.
  The state also charged Flenory with violation of his parole on the 1976 state sentence, and he was required to serve the remainder of that five- to ten-year term. The Federal Parole Commission revoked his parole on January 8, 1988. Having served all of his state sentence, he now faces an additional three years of federal time. This, he contends, violates the plea agreement made in 1976.
  The district court held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain a Rule 35 motion because the 1976 sentence was not illegal, and thus the 120 day time limit in Rule 35(b) is applicable.
  Unquestionably the sentence imposed in 1976 was “legal” in the sense that it was within the statutory maximum, it did not violate double jeopardy, and it was not ambiguous or contradictory. See United States v. Katzin, 824 F.2d 234, 237 (3d Cir.1987). On the other hand, if it violated a plea agreement, it was illegal in the sense that a breach of a plea agreement is ground for the withdrawal of a guilty plea. Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971). Since on this record we must assume such a breach, the sole question presented is whether Rule 35(a) is a source of authority to afford relief. The question is one of first impression in this court, although at least one other court has held that Rule 35(a) relief is not available for relief from breach of a plea agreement. See United States v. Warren, 610 F.2d 680, 684 (9th Cir.1980); United States v. Stevens, 548 F.2d 1360, 1362 (9th Cir.1977). It is, however, a question we do not answer today, because we decide this case on other grounds.
  Whether or not Rule 35 relief is available, it appears that a sentence imposed in violation of a plea bargain is one “imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States” within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The Rule 35 motion was addressed to the same court that has jurisdiction to entertain a section 2255 motion. The United States was informed of the grounds of the motion. It would elevate form over substance to hold that Flenory’s motion should be denied for lack of jurisdiction because he cited Rule 35 rather than section 2255.
  We hold, therefore, that the district court had jurisdiction to entertain Flenory’s contention that the parole feature of the 1976 sentence, if it permits incarceration after completion of his full state sentence, violated a plea bargain. The order appealed from will therefore be reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings on the merits.
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.
  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.