diff --git a/fs/ext3/inode.c b/fs/ext3/inode.c
index 85fe655fe3e0b4de006a32df3c6dee615082bc73..9da9125ba3ef68d8a335119cda3cbe8c9252f298 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/inode.c
@@ -223,8 +223,12 @@ void ext3_evict_inode (struct inode *inode)
 	 *
 	 * Note that directories do not have this problem because they don't
 	 * use page cache.
+	 *
+	 * The s_journal check handles the case when ext3_get_journal() fails
+	 * and puts the journal inode.
 	 */
 	if (inode->i_nlink && ext3_should_journal_data(inode) &&
+	    EXT3_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal &&
 	    (S_ISLNK(inode->i_mode) || S_ISREG(inode->i_mode))) {
 		tid_t commit_tid = atomic_read(&ei->i_datasync_tid);
 		journal_t *journal = EXT3_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal;