Cirrus Can’t Dislodge Suit by Pilot’s Widow on Standing

Cirrus Design Corp. must face design-defect and other claims by a Texas widow in a plane-crash case, a federal court in Minnesota ruled.

Steven Mark Murray was piloting a Cirrus SR22 aircraft when it lost power and crashed after takeoff in Kewanee, Ill., according to the complaint. Nancy Murray, suing on behalf of herself and Steven Murray’s estate, alleges that one or more systems failed, including the autopilot and autotrim features and the avionics suite.

Nancy Murray has standing to sue over her husband’s death in Illinois because Texas law applies, the court said.

Cirrus argued that Minnesota law, ...