See more of our coverage in your search results.
Stew Leonard’s CEO and staff cannot be personally sued over the death of a New York City-based professional ballet dancer who ate a mislabeled holiday cookie containing peanuts.
Orla Baxendale’s family and estate cannot hold CEO Stew Leonard Jr. and other grocery employees individually liable in their wrongful death claims under the Connecticut Product Liability Act (CPLA), Waterbury Superior Court Judge Kimberly Massicotte ruled Oct. 15, according to court documents obtained by Allergic Living.
However, the product liability claims will still proceed against Stew Leonard’s Holdings LLC, Stew Leonard’s Danbury LLC and Cookies United, a Long Island-based wholesaler that manufactured the cookie.
Baxendale, 25, died from anaphylactic shock after suffering an allergic reaction when she ate a vanilla Florentine cookie from a box bearing the Stew Leonard’s brand name at a social gathering in Connecticut on Jan. 11, 2024.
An investigation into the young dancer’s death found that the cookie’s packaging did not list peanuts, to which Baxendale was severely allergic.
An EpiPen was used in an attempt to save her life, “but due to the severity of her allergy, it was not effective,” an attorney representing her estate previously said.
Baxendale, a native of Manchester, England, moved to New York in 2018 to train as a scholarship student at The Ailey School.
Before her death, she had worked with various choreographers and appeared in numerous professional productions, including at New York Fashion Week and at Lincoln Center.
Following her death, Baxendale’s estate and family filed a sweeping wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the defendants of negligence for failing to properly label the package.
Stew Leonard’s has maintained that Cookies United swapped soy nuts for peanuts in the cookie recipe without alerting the chain’s chief safety officer.
Cookies United, however, has said it gave Stew Leonard’s notice of the change in July 2023, emailing several of the grocer’s employees — all of whom were named in the original wrongful death lawsuit — that peanuts had been added, according to Allergic Living.
Baxendale’s estate alleged that Stew Leonard’s employees failed to act on the emails, leaving peanuts off the label.
Massicotte had previously dismissed all claims against individual Stew Leonard’s executives and employees on Sept. 16, 2025, but Baxendale’s attorneys amended the lawsuit under the CPLA, again naming Stew Leonard’s, Cookies United and individual employees, including Stew Leonard Jr., court documents show.
Despite the ruling shielding individual executives and employees, Baxendale’s estate attorney, Howard Hershenhorn, said it won’t stop them from holding Stew Leonard’s accountable for its “reckless” conduct.
“Stew Leonard’s did not have any systems in place to make certain that ingredients that were contained within the product were absolutely listed on the labels,” Hershenhorn told Newsday.
“They had no fail-safe systems in place at the time.”
The attorney also blasted the grocer for doing “nothing to progress the case forward except for obfuscate and attempt every potential procedural maneuver.”
“We’re having none of it and we’re right back in their face at every point to make sure this never happens again,” Hershenhorn told Allergic Living.
Since Baxendale’s death made national headlines, other Stew Leonard’s customers have contacted his firm about labeling problems they claimed to have experienced at the grocery store, Hershenhorn said.
As part of a settlement with the state, Stew Leonard’s paid $50,000 to Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection and donated $200,000 to a food allergy and anaphylaxis nonprofit, according to Newsday.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in Waterbury Superior Court in May 2027.