Carlo Affetto v. Trw, Inc., an Ohio Corporation, and John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a Massachusetts Corporation

FAIRCHILD, Senior Circuit Judge.

The question on this appeal is the proper interpretation of an Illinois statute allowing an attorney’s fee to a plaintiff in a successful suit for wages, and whether an employee’s action to recover pension and insurance benefits is a suit for wages. 1

Plaintiffs are former employees of defendant TRW at a plant in the Chicago area. In 1973 TRW informed its Chicago employees that it was moving its operations to Georgia. The plant was closed in 1975, and plaintiffs’ employment was terminated.

TRW had a retirement plan under which employees who fulfilled certain…