Family of dancer, 25, suing Connecticut supermarket after fatal allergic reaction

(WTNH) – The family of a dancer who died after eating cookies bought at a Connecticut supermarket has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.

Órla Baxendale, a 25-year-old dancer from New York, suffered a fatal allergic reaction on Jan. 11, 2024, after consuming Florentine Cookies from Stew Leonard's grocery store, according to a law firm representing her family.

It was later determined that the cookies contained an undeclared peanut ingredient, Connecticut's departments of Public Health (DPH) and Consumer Protection (DCP) wrote in a warning/recall notice issued after Baxendale's death.

The family's complaint, filed last week, alleges that Stew Leonard's "exhibited gross negligence and reckless indifference by failing to properly label the package of cookies, causing Ms. Baxendale's death."

Nexstar's WPIX had reached out to Stew Leonard's representatives, who said they could not comment on pending litigation.

In January, however, CEO Stew Leonard Jr. instead blamed the company that supplied the cookies — Cookies United, of Islip, New York — alleging they changed the recipe without notifying the chief safety officer at Stew Leonard's.

Cookies United responded shortly after, but claimed they had informed Stew Leonard's of the new ingredients about six months before the incident, in July 2023. The company said the cookies were shipped to Stew Leonard's with updated labels, but Stew Leonard's repackaged the cookies with an "incorrect label."

Both Stew Leonard's and Cookies United were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

"The evidence clearly shows that a deadly cookie sold and packaged by Stew Leonard’s killed Órla Ruth Baxendale who was in the prime of her life and caused her parents Angela and Simon Baxendale to suffer the loss of their child, yet, Stew Leonard’s has failed to take responsibility for the senseless and preventable tragedy of Órla Ruth Baxendale’s death," reads a portion of the complaint.

The lawsuit, filed by the personal injury law firm of Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf. is seeking both monetary and punitive damages, as well as attorneys' fees and "any other relief the court deems just and proper."