Stew Leonard's employees, company's namesake removed from dancer's wrongful death lawsuit
Órla Baxendale came to New York City in 2018 to train at The Ailey School in Manhattan. Credit: Nir Arieli
A Connecticut judge has again ruled that individual Stew Leonard's employees and the company's namesake cannot be held legally or financially responsible for the January 2024 death of a British dancer who suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating a cookie purchased from the supermarket chain that did not have peanuts on the list of ingredients.
The ruling struck two of the five counts from the amended wrongful death lawsuit of Órla Baxendale, 25, but allowed the case to proceed against the Stew Leonard's franchise and Cookies United, the Islip-based wholesaler that manufactured the cookie.
Baxendale, of Manchester, England, died in 2024 while living in New York after consuming a vanilla Florentine cookie labeled with the Stew Leonard’s brand name, officials said.
In May that year, the estate of the young dancer filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming the failure to properly label the package was negligent.
In a Sept. 16, 2025, ruling, Waterbury Superior Court Judge Kimberly Massicotte dismissed all claims against individual Stew Leonard's executives and employees, including Stew Leonard Jr., the company's president and chief executive.
Massicotte also dismissed the lawsuit's wrongful death counts, ruling that Connecticut's Product Liability Act is the only legal remedy for injuries caused by defective products.
The following month, attorneys for Baxendale's estate filed an amended lawsuit, suing Stew Leonard's, which has locations in Farmingdale and East Meadow; Cookies United; and the individual employees, including Stew Leonard Jr., under the CPLA.
But in her Oct. 15 ruling, Massicotte struck down the claims against the individual workers and said Stew Leonard Jr. could not be personally sued under the CPLA. The claims against the supermarket and the wholesaler under the CPLA can continue, the judge said.
Howard Hershenhorn, a Manhattan attorney representing the Baxendale family, said the ruling would not prevent Stew Leonard's from being held responsible for its "reckless" behavior.
"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 said. "They had no fail-safe systems in place at the time."
Attorneys for Stew Leonard's and Cookies United did not respond to requests for comment.
Baxendale moved to New York in 2018 to train as a scholarship student at The Ailey School. She worked with various choreographers and appeared in numerous professional productions, including at Lincoln Center.
She went into anaphylactic shock on Jan. 11, 2024, after eating the cookie, purchased at a Connecticut Stew Leonard's store, at a social gathering, officials said.
An EpiPen, an autoinjector containing medication to decrease an allergic reaction, was administered to Baxendale at the gathering, but the dancer succumbed to the allergic reaction that day, Hershenhorn said.
Stew Leonard’s has argued Cookies United went from soy nuts to peanuts in its cookies recipe without notifying the supermarket chain's chief safety officer.
But Cookies United executives said they sent emails to 11 Stew Leonard's employees — all of whom were named in the original lawsuit — notifying them the product now contained peanuts. The company also contends that when the cookies were shipped to Stew Leonard's, the labels created by the bakery stipulated the product contained peanuts.
The lawsuit argued Stew Leonard's employees ignored the email and the updated ingredients were never included on the cookie label.
To settle an investigation with the state, Stew Leonard's was required to pay $50,000 to Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection and to make a $200,000 donation to a nonprofit that focuses on food allergy and anaphylaxis research, prevention and awareness.
Stew Leonard's was also mandated to designate an internal compliance manager responsible for food safety, training and reporting; to establish storewide policies to ensure accurate labeling of supplier-provided foods; to improve training for employees; and to hire an independent third-party compliance monitor.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
Luxe apts. got tax break without affordable housing ... Suburban voters and midterms ... LI employs 90% of highest paid government employees ... County on hook for $70M for dangerous intersection
Luxe apts. got tax break without affordable housing ... Suburban voters and midterms ... LI employs 90% of highest paid government employees ... County on hook for $70M for dangerous intersection
