A US appeals court has ruled a woman can sue a dead man whose body parts struck her after he was hit by a speeding train.

Hiroyuki Joho, 18, was killed while rushing through the rain with an umbrella to catch a commuter train in Edgebrook near Chicago in September 2008.

He was struck and killed by the speeding Amtrak train and his body severed on impact, reports the Chicago Tribune.

A large part of his body was hurled onto the southbound platform of the station where it struck Gayane Zokhrabov, 58, who was on her way to work.

The impact caused her to fall, breaking her wrist and leg and injuring her shoulder.

Zokhrabov tried to sue Joho's estate, but the lawsuit was thrown out of a Cook County court by a judge who ruled the young man could not be responsible for the woman's injuries.

This week a state court overturned the ruling. The woman's lawyer said the gruesome details of the case did not prevent the young man from being negligent.

"If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it," said Leslie Rosen, Zokhrabov's lawyer.

Read more about the woman planning to sue a dead man at the Chicago Tribune.