In January, 25-year-old professional dancer Órla Baxendale died after eating mislabeled cookies purchased from grocery store chain Stew Leonard’s. Now, lawyers are launching a major wrongful death suit against the company on behalf of Baxendale’s estate.
Baxendale, who had a known, severe allergy to peanuts, ate some cookies at a social gathering, according to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. The Florentine cookies, purchased at Stew Leonard’s in Connecticut, “contained, among other things, undeclared peanuts and other known allergens,” according to the complaint, filed May 23, 2024.
The new suit alleges that Stew Leonard’s ignored previous alerts from the manufacturer and did not update the ingredients label on the cookies when it should have. The complaint names both Stew Leonard’s and the cookie manufacturer, Cookies United, as defendants.
Stew Leonard’s declined to comment for this story due to pending litigation. Cookies United did not immediately respond to a TODAY.com request for comment.
Per a Jan. 23, 2024, alert from the Connecticut State Department of Consumer Protection, Stew Leonard’s recalled both the chocolate and vanilla varieties of the cookies, originally made by wholesaler Cookies United, due to the labeling error and acknowledged someone had died possibly due to the mislabeled product.
That same day, Cookies United released a statement and documents alleging that it alerted multiple Stew Leonard’s employees of the recipe change back in July 2023.
In an updated statement posted on Jan. 25, Stew Leonard’s warned customers that the cookies contained both undeclared peanuts and eggs — and noted that one death was reported “that may be associated with the mislabeled product.”
“Stew Leonard’s is working with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and the supplier to determine the cause of the labeling error. Customers who have purchased these cookies should bring back the product to Stew Leonard’s customer service for a full refund,” the Jan. 25 statement read.
Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of the grocery store chain, said in a video statement from late January that about 500 units of the cookies were sold during the holiday season. The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection worked with the company to remove all Cookies United products from stores, the agency said.
Leonard alleged that Cookies United did not contact the grocery store’s chief safety officer about the change in ingredients, whereas a lawyer for Cookies United alleged that they sent emails to 11 Stew Leonard’s employees in July 2023, NBC New York reported.
“On July 20, 2023, approximately six months prior to this tragic death, no less than eleven employees of the Stew Leonard’s Defendants, were notified by email of the change in ingredients,” the complaint reads, “including the addition of peanuts to the cookie recipe, by the defendant cookie manufacturer.”
Despite the email notification, Stew Leonard’s “ignored the email and never changed the label or the nutrition fact panel and never properly updated the packaging,” the complaint says.
Baxendale’s death was a result of gross negligence, the complaint alleges, “and reckless indifference to the rights of others and an intentional and wanton violation of those rights by the defendants.”
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