Anne B. Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., and Independent Federation of Flight Attendants, Intervenor-Appellant

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

This dispute over liability for statutory attorneys’ fees has its origins in a 1970 class action filed by the plaintiffs against Trans World Airlines (“TWA”) alleging unlawful sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. After nearly nine years of litigation, the plaintiffs entered into a comprehensive settlement agreement with TWA which was contested by the in-tervenor, the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants (“IFFA”), on the grounds that the terms of the settlement violated the rights of those TWA…