The estate of Órla Baxendale, a 25-year-old professional dancer with a severe nut allergy who died in January after allegedly eating mislabeled Florentine cookies, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the store that sold the cookies.
In the lawsuit filed May 23, reviewed by PEOPLE, attorneys representing the estate claim Baxendale died “as a result of gross negligence and wanton indifference to the rights of others and willful and wanton violation of those rights by” the supermarket, Stew Leonard’s and the cookie maker. Cookies United. Both the supermarket and the manufacturer are named as defendants. The suit was filed in Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn.
A spokesperson for Stew Leonard’s told PEOPLE they cannot comment on pending litigation. PEOPLE also reached out to the general counsel for Cookies United.
Orla Baxendale.
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Baxendale ate the Florentine cookies on Jan. 11, the lawsuit alleges. On January 24, her family’s lawyers released a statement claiming she died of anaphylactic shock that day, repeating the claims made in the lawsuit. Officials from the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) also said in January that they were investigating the incident.
Bexendale had an EpiPen with her, but her allergy was too severe, her family’s lawyers said in a statement in January. “After she started having an anaphylactic reaction, an EpiPen was used, but due to the severity of her allergy, it was not effective,” attorney Marijo C. Adime argued at the time.
The dancer, “like all consumers, relied on the fact that the manufacturer and seller would correctly label the package sold to the general public,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit calls the mislabeling of the cookies “grossly negligent, willful, wanton, callous, indifference to human life and wanton violation since the manufacturer and seller were required by law to properly declare the ingredients.”
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Stew Leonard’s has recalled both the chocolate and vanilla varieties of Florentine Cookies made by Cookies United because of a label error, according to a Jan. 23 alert from the Connecticut Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection. The supermarket admitted that one person died probably due to a mistake. On January 25, the supermarket warned consumers that the cookies contained undeclared eggs and peanuts.
“Stew Leonard’s is working with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and the supplier to determine the cause of the label error,” it said in a Jan. 25 statement. “Customers who purchased these cookies should return the product to Stew Leonard’s Customer Service for a full refund.”
Stew Leonard CEO Stew Leonard Jr. released a video statement on Baxendale’s death, offering condolences to her family. “The supplier changed the recipe and started switching from soy nuts to peanuts and our Chief Safety Officer at Stew Leonard’s was never notified,” Leonard Jr. claimed. in the video.
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Stew Leonard has recalled Florentine Cookies.
Leonard’s stew
25-year-old dancer with severe peanut allergy dies after eating mislabeled cookies
However, Cookies United issued a press release on January 23, stating that the misprinted label was “created by Stew Leonard’s and applied to their product.” The company also included documents it claims show it notified Stew Leonard’s employees of the July 2023 recipe change.
“On July 20, 2023, approximately six months prior to this tragic death, as many as eleven employees of Stew Leonard’s Defendants were notified by email of a change in ingredients, including the addition of peanuts to the cookie recipe, by Defendants. cookie maker, Cookies United LLC,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that Stew Leonard’s “ignored” the email and “never changed the label or nutrition facts panel and never properly updated the packaging.” The supermarket chain’s system for “maintaining and updating proper signage was broken, unreliable, inherently dangerous, unreliable, unreliable, erratic and deplorable,” the lawsuit alleges.
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