Órla Baxendale was 25 years old and had a whole life filled with rehearsals ahead of her. She was a professional dancer who came to New York in 2018 on a scholarship to The Ailey School and worked at New York Fashion Week and Lincoln Center.
On January 11, 2024, at a social gathering in Connecticut, she ate a Vanilla Florentine cookie from a box bearing the Stew Leonard’s brand. The label did not mention peanuts, to which she was severely allergic. She died of anaphylactic shock. According to an attorney for her estate, the EpiPen administered to her was ineffective because of the severity of her allergy.
Now, Judge Kimberly Massicotte of the Waterbury Superior Court ruled on October 15 that CEO Stew Leonard Jr. and other employees cannot be sued personally. This is the second time she has dismissed them from the case. The product liability lawsuit against the companies is still proceeding, and each side tells a different story: the supermarket chain says the supplier changed the recipe without notifying it; Cookies United maintains that it sent an email notice in July 2023 to several employees of the chain.
A family lost their daughter because of an incomplete label. Who should be held responsible for that?
