The U.S. Supreme Court says it won't block a lawsuit against a Canadian railway firm involved in a deadly derailment in North Dakota.

The justices declined to get involved in a dispute between the Canadian Pacific Railway and residents of Minot, North Dakota.

The Minot residents want to sue the firm over a 2002 derailment that sent a cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia farm fertilizer over the city. One man died trying to escape the fumes and others were treated at hospitals for eye and lung problems.

In 2006, a U.S. district judge ruled that federal law protected Canadian Pacific from claims stemming from the derailment.

After Congress changed the law the same year, the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the claims could be pursued.