A wrongful loss case was brought by the estate of Órla Baxendale, a 25-year-old professional dancer who suffered from a severe nut allergy. Baxendale passed away in January, due to the fact that she reportedly consumed Florentine pastries that were mislabeled. The grocery shop that sold the cookies was the defendant in the action.
According to the lawsuit that was submitted on May 23 and reviewed by PEOPLE, the attorneys who represent the estate claim that Baxendale passed away “as a result of the gross negligence and reckless indifference to the rights of others and an intentional and wanton violation of those rights by” the supermarket, Stew Leonard’s, and the manufacturer of the cookies, Cookies United. There is a list of defendants that includes both the supermarket and the manufacturer. Legal action was initiated at the Superior Court located in Waterbury, Connecticut.
PEOPLE was informed by a spokesman for Stew Leonard’s that the company is unable to comment on any ongoing legal proceedings. A number of individuals also made contact with the general counsel for Cookies United.
According to the complaint, Baxendale consumed the Florentine Cookies on January 11 for the first time. In a statement that was posted on January 24, her family’s counsel said that she had passed away of anaphylactic shock on that day, which is consistent with the allegations that were stated in the lawsuit. Additionally, in January, officials from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) said that they were conducting an investigation into the event.
Bexendale was carrying an EpiPen with her, but the severity of her allergy was too great, according to a statement released by her family’s lawyers in January. Attorney Marijo C. Adime said at the time that an EpiPen was administered to the patient when she started experiencing an anaphylactic response; but, owing to the severity of her allergy, the EpiPen was not successful in treating her condition.
In the case, it is said that the dancer, “like all consumers, relied upon the manufacturer and seller to properly label the package sold to the general public.”
The failure to correctly label the cookies is described as “grossly negligent, intentional, reckless, callous, indifferent to human life, and a wanton violation” in the case. This is due to the fact that the producer and seller were obligated by law to properly state the contents.
Due to a mistake in labeling, Stew Leonard’s has recalled both the chocolate and vanilla variants of the Florentine Cookies that were manufactured by Cookies United. This information was provided in an alert that was issued by the Connecticut State Department of Consumer Protection on January 23. It was recognized by the store that there was a person who passed away potentially as a result of the error. On the 25th of January, the grocer issued a warning to customers that the cookies included peanuts and eggs that had not been reported.
“Stew Leonard’s is working with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and the supplier to determine the cause of the labeling error,” according to the statement issued on January 25, 2019. “Customers who have purchased these cookies should bring back the product to Stew Leonard’s customer service for a full refund.”
Stew Leonard Jr., the Chief Executive Officer of Stew Leonard, was the one who made a video message on Baxendale’s passing, expressing his sympathies to her family. “The supplier changed the recipe and started going from soy nuts to peanuts, and our chief safety officer at Stew Leonard’s was never notified,” Leonard Jr. said in the video. “The supplier changed the recipe.”
On the other hand, Cookies United released a press statement on January 23, claiming that the incorrectly printed label “was created by Stew Leonard’s and applied to their product.” A number of papers were also presented by the corporation, which claimed to demonstrate that it had informed Stew Leonard’s workers of the recipe change in July of 2023.
“On July 20, 2023, approximately six months prior to this tragic loss, no less than eleven employees of the Stew Leonard’s Defendants were notified by email of the change in ingredients, including the addition of peanuts to the cookie recipe,” the lawsuit reads. “The defendant cookie manufacturer, Cookies United LLC, was responsible for making the change.”
According to the allegations made in the complaint, Stew Leonard’s “ignored” the email and “never changed the label or the nutrition fact panel and never properly updated the packaging.” According to the allegations made in the complaint, the system that the grocery chain used to “maintain and update the proper labels was broken, unreliable, inherently dangerous, undependable, untrustworthy, erratic, and deplorable.”
