Do root actions as non root in Mavericks?
Permissions to remove a file from a directory are not related to the file, but to the directory the file is in.  Your group, or everyone, has write permissions on the directory where you are able to delete the file.

In the example below, there is a file which only root can read/write; but, user "administrator" owns the directory, and has rwx permissions.  Another user ("my_user") is unable to remove the file, but "administrator" can.

sh-3.2# ls -lFa
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   3 administrator  wheel  102 Jan 28 11:12 ./
drwxrwxrwt  18 root           wheel  612 Jan 28 11:12 ../
-rw-------   1 root           wheel    0 Jan 28 11:12 a.txt
sh-3.2# su my_user
bash-3.2$ rm a.txt
override rw-------  root/wheel for a.txt? y
rm: a.txt: Permission denied
bash-3.2$ exit
exit
sh-3.2# su administrator
bash-3.2$ rm a.txt
override rw-------  root/wheel for a.txt? y
bash-3.2$