The chief executive and employees of Stew Leonard’s cannot be sued individually over the death of a New York City professional ballet dancer who suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating a holiday cookie containing undisclosed peanuts.
Waterbury Superior Court Judge Kimberly Massicotte ruled Oct. 15 that Orla Baxendale’s family and estate cannot hold Stew Leonard Jr. and other grocery employees personally liable in wrongful-death claims brought under the Connecticut Product Liability Act, according to court records obtained by Allergic Living.
The case will continue against Stew Leonard’s Holdings LLC, Stew Leonard’s Danbury LLC and Cookies United, the Long Island wholesaler that made the cookie.
Baxendale, 25, died of anaphylactic shock after eating a vanilla Florentine cookie from a Stew Leonard’s-branded box at a Connecticut social gathering on Jan. 11, 2024.
An investigation into her death determined that the product’s packaging failed to disclose peanuts, an ingredient to which Baxendale was severely allergic.
An EpiPen was administered in an effort to save her, “but due to the severity of her allergy, it was not effective,” an attorney for her estate previously said.
Baxendale was born in Manchester, England, and moved to New York in 2018 after receiving a scholarship to study at The Ailey School.
She later worked with several choreographers and performed in professional productions, including events connected to New York Fashion Week and Lincoln Center.
After her death, her family and estate filed a wide-ranging wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that the defendants negligently failed to ensure the cookie package carried an accurate ingredient label.
Stew Leonard’s has said Cookies United replaced soy nuts with peanuts in the recipe without notifying the grocery chain’s chief safety officer.
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Cookies United disputes that account. The wholesaler has said it notified Stew Leonard’s in July 2023 by emailing several employees that peanuts had been added, according to Allergic Living. Those employees were all named in the original lawsuit.
Baxendale’s estate contends that the employees failed to respond to those notices, resulting in peanuts being omitted from the product label.
Massicotte had dismissed claims against individual Stew Leonard’s executives and employees on Sept. 16, 2025. Baxendale’s attorneys later amended the complaint under the Connecticut Product Liability Act, again naming Stew Leonard’s, Cookies United and individual defendants, including Stew Leonard Jr., court records show.
Although the ruling protects the individual executives and employees from personal liability, Howard Hershenhorn, the attorney representing Baxendale’s estate, said it would not prevent the family from pursuing Stew Leonard’s over what he described as “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.”
Hershenhorn also accused the grocery chain of 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.
Hershenhorn said other Stew Leonard’s customers have contacted his firm since Baxendale’s death drew national attention, reporting labeling issues they allegedly encountered at the grocery chain.
Under a settlement with Connecticut, Stew Leonard’s paid $50,000 to the state Department of Consumer Protection and donated $200,000 to a nonprofit focused on food allergies and anaphylaxis, Newsday reported.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in Waterbury Superior Court in May 2027.