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:
Mehmet N. OZYAGCILAR, Appellant, v. Milton DAVIS and J.D. Waugh, and University of South Carolina, Appellees, v. Kenneth SWAISLAND, Rafel Industrial Group, Ltd., Bryan E.W. Gransden, Norminco Developments, Ltd., B.J.R. Research Company, and Great Basins Petroleum Company, Third-Party Defendants.
No. 82-1472.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Argued Jan. 14, 1983.
Decided March 1, 1983.
Herbert Rosenberg, New York City (Miller, Singer, Michaelson & Raives, Barry Evans, Curtis, Morris & Safford, P.C., New York City, on brief) for appellant.
Robert Neuner, New York City (John D. Murnane, Brumbaugh, Graves, Donohue & Raymond, New York City, Robert W. Dibble, Jr., Randall T. Bell, Robert E. Stepp, McNair, Glenn, Konduros, Corley, Single-tary, Porter & Dibble; C. Tolbert Goolsby, Jr., Deputy Atty. Gen., Columbia, S.C., on brief) for appellees.
Before WINTER, Chief Judge, WIDENER, Circuit Judge, and FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge.
HARRISON L. WINTER, Chief Judge:
Mehmet Ozyagcilar, a student at the University of South Carolina, sued the University and two of its professors regarding patent rights to two new chemical processes which plaintiff claimed to have invented. The parties purportedly reached a settlement just before trial. An outline of their agreement was made part of the record and the case was dismissed with prejudice. Later, during the drafting of the formal settlement agreement, a dispute arose over the meaning of a clause in the outline agreement, and the district court, purporting to act as a “final arbiter,” issued an order interpreting the agreement. Concluding that the district court proceeded improperly, we reverse its order and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I.
One of the two chemical processes at issue in the original suit involved the synthesis of ammonia and the other the synthesis of hydrocarbons and alcohols. Ozyagci-lar alleged in his complaint that the University and its professors had wrongfully appropriated his inventions and filed patent applications for them. Plaintiff also filed patent applications for both inventions concurrent with his filing suit.
Just before trial, lawyers for the parties reached an agreement in settlement of the litigation. An outline of the agreement was drafted by defendants’ attorneys and signed by plaintiff and all of the attorneys for both sides. It was contemplated that the outline would be followed by the drafting and execution of more formal documents. In relevant part, the outline provided for
Ownership in the University of all United States and foreign patents and patent applications except for Turkey.... Mr. Ozyagcilar to receive a nonexclusive transferrable royalty-free irrevocable license under the patents and patent applications.
When the case was called for trial, the outline agreement was read into the record. The district court asked plaintiff’s counsel whether he accepted the terms of the agreement and had authority to do so, and counsel responded that he did. The following colloquy then took place:
THE COURT: Do you further agree that on behalf of your client, if any dispute arises under this settlement as to its terms and the meaning of the words ... that that matter will be resolved by the court?
PLAINTIFF’S COUNSEL: We understand that to be the case, yes sir.
Plaintiff, himself, and counsel for all of the defendants also responded affirmatively when questioned whether they agreed that the court would resolve any disputes which might arise as to the interpretation of the agreement. However, the outline agreement contained no provision that the district court would be the interpreter of any of its terms; it was completely silent as to who was to resolve any disputes arising as to its meaning.
A dispute as to the meaning of “a nonexclusive transferrable royalty-free irrevocable license” arose in the course of drafting the formal settlement agreement. Plaintiff contended that his understanding was that he would have the right to sublicense the process to numerous companies. Defendants contended that they had understood— and that plaintiff had understood — that plaintiff would only get one indivisible license that he could transfer to one company.
The district court, after receiving affidavits and briefs from the parties, issued its “Order Interpreting Settlement Agreement.” The district court did not conduct an evidentiary hearing; it made no findings of fact; and it did not address the argument, raised by plaintiff, that there had never been a meeting of the minds between the parties as to the meaning of the phrase. Rather, the court, purporting to act as a “final arbitor [sic],” examined patent law principles and the effect on the parties of possible interpretations, and imposed a third interpretation. Under the district court’s interpretation and order, plaintiff would be able to transfer each of two licenses — one for ammonia and the other for hydrocarbons and alcohols — to one company at any given time. As construed by it, the district court ordered the agreement carried out. Ozyagcilar now appeals.
II.
It is well settled that a district court retains inherent jurisdiction and equitable power to enforce agreements entered into in settlement of litigation before that court. Millner v. Norfolk & Western Ry. Co., 643 F.2d 1005, 1009 (4 Cir.1981); Wood v. Virginia Hauling Co., 528 F.2d 423, 425 (4 Cir.1975); Kulka v. National Distillers Prods. Co., 483 F.2d 619, 621 (6 Cir.1973). However, it is clear that the district court only retains the power to enforce complete settlement agreements; it does not have the power to impose, in the role of a final arbiter, a settlement agreement where there was never a meeting of the parties’ minds. Wood, supra, 528 F.2d at 425. Where there has been no meeting of the minds sufficient to form a complete settlement agreement, any partial performance of the settlement agreement must be rescinded and the case restored to the docket for trial. Id.
We think it clear that the district court proceeded erroneously in the present case. Although plaintiff alleged that there had never been a meeting of the minds, the district court did not conduct a plenary hearing and make findings as to this issue. The failure of the district court to address and resolve this issue leaves open the question as to whether there ever was a complete settlement agreement to interpret, let alone its proper interpretation. The court’s ruling therefore cannot stand.
The action taken by the district court in the present case cannot be justified on the ground that the parties agreed to let the court “legislate” an interpretation as a “final arbiter” of the outline agreement. The proper role of the district court in enforcing settlement agreements was made clear in Wood. There, in remanding a similar case to the district judge, we described his role as “to find, if he can the terms of the complete settlement agreement, or to determine that there was none.” Id. (emphasis in original). Thus, it is improper for the district court, by its own motion or by agreement of the parties, to place itself in the role of a “final arbiter” of a settlement agreement. Instead, on remand, the district court should, after a plenary hearing, determine if there was a settlement agreement between the parties and, if so, its terms and conditions.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Of course the district court did receive affidavits, but this was an impermissible procedure. Whether there had been a meeting of the parties’ minds is clearly a question of fact, and it was error for the district court to attempt to resolve this question based solely on affidavits and briefs. Wood, supra, 528 F.2d at 425; Millner, supra, 643 F.2d at 1009; Kulka, supra, 483 F.2d at 621-22.

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