Airline Sues Icahn, Seeks Sale of Stake : TWA Charges Investor Group With Conspiracy

Trans World Airlines sued investor Carl C. Icahn on Wednesday, demanding that he divest himself of his 23% stake in the company and seeking to bar him from attempting to take control of TWA.

The suit, filed in federal court here, charged that the New York investor and the group that he heads had acquired TWA stock in a “conspiracy.”

It sought, among other things, to prevent them from acquiring more TWA stock, from making a tender offer, from voting their shares or from otherwise using the shares as a means of “controlling or affecting the management of TWA, from exercising any influence upon management of its business policies or decisions.”

It sought damages in excess of $10,000, the figure to be determined by the court.

Icahn, who has been involved in numerous corporate takeover attempts, reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission last week that he and his group had acquired a 20% interest in the airline. Earlier this week, they said the stake had been raised to 23%.

‘Uninvited and Undesirable’

TWA’s president, C. E. Meyer, who has charged Icahn with trying to intimidate the company’s management, has said that Icahn’s presence as a stockholder is “uninvited and undesirable.”

In its suit, TWA charged that Icahn began “secretly” buying TWA shares last December. It said some of the 10 companies mentioned in the suit were created “for the express purpose of purchasing TWA stock.”

It charged Icahn with having previously looted companies and said his “corporate machinations and investment exploits have involved him in many . . . violations of federal and state securities laws.”

It said he was “well-known as a notorious takeover entrepreneur who is only concerned with quick profit potential for himself and his camp followers” and accused him of “exploiting improperly the corporate takeover process to achieve rapid short-term gain . . . at the expense of the target company’s other shareholders, employees and the communities which it serves.”

A secretary in Icahn’s New York office said Wednesday that he would not be available for comment on the suit.