(WTNH) – The family of a dancer who died after eating cookies purchased 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 January 11, 2024, after consuming Florentine cookies from the Stew Leonard supermarket, according to a law firm representing her family.
The cookies were later determined to contain an undeclared peanut ingredient, the Connecticut departments of Public Health (DPH) and Consumer Protection (DCP) wrote in a warning/recall notice issued after Baxendale’s death.
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The family’s complaint, filed last week, alleges that Stew Leonard “exhibited gross negligence and reckless indifference by failing to properly label the package of cookies, resulting in Ms. Baxendale’s death.”
The cookies contained undeclared peanuts that may have caused the death of a person at a CT social gathering, according to state officials. (Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection)
Nexstar’s WPIX had reached out to representatives for Stew Leonard, who said they could not comment on pending litigation.
However, in January, CEO Stew Leonard Jr. blamed the company that supplied the cookies, Cookies United, of Islip, New York, alleging that they changed the recipe without notifying Stew Leonard’s safety director.
Cookies United responded shortly after, but stated that they had informed Stew Leonard’s about the new ingredients about six months before the incident, in July 2023. The company said the cookies were sent to Stew Leonard’s with updated labels, but Stew Leonard’s again packaging cookies with an “incorrect label.”
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Both Stew Leonard’s and Cookies United were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
“The evidence clearly shows that a deadly biscuit 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 son, however, Stew Leonard’s has failed to take responsibility for the senseless and avoidable tragedy of the death of Órla Ruth Baxendale,” reads part of the complaint.
The lawsuit, filed by the personal injury law firm Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf. seeks monetary and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and “such other relief as the court deems just and appropriate.”
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