Stew Leonard’s Workers Not Liable In NY Woman's Allergy Death

A judge has ruled that individual Stew Leonard’s supermarket employees can’t be held liable for the peanut allergy-related death of a young New York woman.

A lawsuit filed last year in Connecticut is still pending against the business and cookie maker, with the case currently slated to go to trial in September 2026.

Órla Ruth Baxendale died in January 2024 after consuming a Florentine cookie that contained peanuts that weren’t declared on the product label, according to the lawsuit.

It states she “experienced an anaphylactic reaction causing shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and swallowing, dizziness, wheezing, chest tightness, lightheadedness, increased heartrate, sudden weakness, feeling of doom and dread with accompanying terror, cardiac arrest, loss of
consciousness and death.”

Baxendale was a dancer and scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey School in New York. She ate the cookie while at a gathering in Connecticut, documents show.

The litigation claims the cookie manufacturer changed the recipe to contain peanuts, and alerted Stew Leonard’s employees, but Stew Leonard’s packaged and sold the cookies without properly changing the label to warn customers.

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Kimberly Massicotte wrote in a recent decision, “The allegations in this case are inadequate to demonstrate that the individual employee defendants had an independent duty to the decedent.”

“The duty to correctly label groceries sold at a grocery store… belongs to the operator of the grocery store,” the ruling says.

The complaint was originally filed against Stew Leonard's Danbury LLC; Stew Leonard's Holdings LLC; the cookie manufacturer, Cookies United LLC based in Islip, New York; and the following individuals: Stew Leonard Jr., and supermarket employees David Pollard, Peter Tournas, Bret Cherry, Mario Ortiz, Chris Nemer, Annemarie Clarke aka Annemarie Clarke Gochee, and Sergio Rocha.

The judge granted a motion to strike regarding Leonard Jr. and all of the supermarket employees, deeming them not liable.

Stew Leonard's has Connecticut locations in Norwalk, Danbury and Newington, as well as stores in New York and New Jersey.

Read more:
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Stew Leonard's, Bakery Over Cookie-Related Death
Cookies Recalled By Stew Leonard's After Death At CT Gathering: DCP
Dancer Identified As Victim In Deadly Allergen Labeling Case Involving Stew Leonard’s