diff --git a/fs/ext3/balloc.c b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
index 22548f56197b52cf06b343285b7e7beb7d74cb10..158b5d4ce0670f31aff64638274b8ae6849655d4 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/balloc.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
@@ -1727,10 +1727,7 @@ ext3_fsblk_t ext3_new_blocks(handle_t *handle, struct inode *inode,
 	percpu_counter_sub(&sbi->s_freeblocks_counter, num);
 
 	BUFFER_TRACE(gdp_bh, "journal_dirty_metadata for group descriptor");
-	err = ext3_journal_dirty_metadata(handle, gdp_bh);
-	if (!fatal)
-		fatal = err;
-
+	fatal = ext3_journal_dirty_metadata(handle, gdp_bh);
 	if (fatal)
 		goto out;