The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that negligence claims against two aircraft firms in the 2002 death of a Minnesota pilot were wrongly thrown out.

The court’s decision Friday also said a trial judge in Mobile wrongly dismissed strict-liability claims against Teledyne Continental Motors and Cirrus Industries in the crash in New Mexico that killed John Swanstrom Jr. of Duluth.

His wife and children filed a wrongful death suit against Mobile-based Teledyne and Duluth-based Cirrus, claiming in part that a fuel pump was defective on the single-engine Cirrus SR-20.

The Supreme Court said the trial judge properly struck down breach of warranty claims against Cirrus but should allow more proceedings on the negligence and strict-liability claims against both firms.