Stew Leonard’s chief executive and several employees cannot be held personally liable for the death of a New York City professional ballet dancer who suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating a holiday cookie with undisclosed peanuts.
Waterbury Superior Court Judge Kimberly Massicotte ruled Oct. 15 that Orla Baxendale’s family and estate may not pursue wrongful-death claims individually against CEO Stew Leonard Jr. or other grocery workers under the Connecticut Product Liability Act, according to court records reviewed by Allergic Living.
The broader product-liability lawsuit will continue against Stew Leonard’s Holdings LLC, Stew Leonard’s Danbury LLC and Cookies United, the Long Island company that produced the cookie.
Baxendale, 25, died of anaphylactic shock on Jan. 11, 2024, after eating a vanilla Florentine cookie at a Connecticut gathering. The item came from a box sold under the Stew Leonard’s brand.
The cookie’s packaging failed to identify peanuts, an ingredient to which the dancer had a severe allergy, an investigation into her death found.
Someone administered an EpiPen in an effort to save Baxendale, but an attorney for her estate previously said the medication could not overcome the seriousness of her reaction.
Originally from Manchester, England, Baxendale came to New York in 2018 after receiving a scholarship to study at The Ailey School.
She went on to work with multiple choreographers and perform in professional productions, including appearances connected to New York Fashion Week and Lincoln Center.
After her death, her relatives and estate filed a wide-ranging wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging that the defendants negligently failed to ensure the cookie was labeled accurately.
Stew Leonard’s has argued that Cookies United replaced soy nuts with peanuts in the recipe without informing the grocery chain’s chief safety officer.
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Cookies United has disputed that account. According to Allergic Living, the manufacturer said it notified Stew Leonard’s in July 2023 by emailing several grocery employees—each of whom was initially named in the lawsuit—that peanuts had been added.
Baxendale’s estate claims the employees did not act on those warnings, resulting in packaging that continued to omit peanuts from the ingredient information.
Judge Massicotte had dismissed the claims against individual Stew Leonard’s executives and workers on Sept. 16, 2025. Baxendale’s lawyers later revised their complaint under the Connecticut Product Liability Act, again naming the companies, Cookies United and individual defendants, including Stew Leonard Jr., court records show.
Although the latest ruling protects the individual executives and employees from personal liability, estate attorney Howard Hershenhorn said the decision will not prevent the family from pursuing Stew Leonard’s over what he called the company’s “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 supermarket chain of making no meaningful effort to advance the case, saying it had instead tried to “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 shoppers have since contacted his law firm with complaints about alleged food-labeling issues at the grocery chain, after Baxendale’s death drew national attention.
Stew Leonard’s also paid $50,000 to Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection and donated $200,000 to a nonprofit focused on food allergies and anaphylaxis as part of a settlement with the state, Newsday reported.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in Waterbury Superior Court in May 2027.
