diff --git a/src/common/dist_tasks.c b/src/common/dist_tasks.c
index e5071b7c98f3e667d5f9426984320047fb372058..02bbdc98ca2f290c775a5931a1c64d2edefa72cf 100644
--- a/src/common/dist_tasks.c
+++ b/src/common/dist_tasks.c
@@ -257,11 +257,8 @@ extern int task_layout(slurm_step_layout_t *step_layout)
 				     * step_layout->num_hosts);
 	step_layout->host  = xmalloc(sizeof(char *)
 				     * step_layout->num_hosts);
-	if ((step_layout->cpus == NULL) || (step_layout->tasks == NULL) ||
-	    (step_layout->host == NULL)) {
-		slurm_seterrno(ENOMEM);
-		return SLURM_ERROR;
-	}
+	step_layout->tids  = xmalloc(sizeof(uint32_t *)
+				     * step_layout->num_hosts);
 
 	for (i=0; i<step_layout->num_hosts; i++) {
 		step_layout->host[i] = hostlist_shift(step_layout->hl);
@@ -272,14 +269,6 @@ extern int task_layout(slurm_step_layout_t *step_layout)
 			cpu_cnt = 0;
 		}
 	}
-	step_layout->tasks = xmalloc(sizeof(uint32_t) 
-				     * step_layout->num_hosts);
-	step_layout->tids  = xmalloc(sizeof(uint32_t *) 
-				     * step_layout->num_hosts);
-	if ((step_layout->tasks == NULL) || (step_layout->tids == NULL)) {
-		slurm_seterrno(ENOMEM);
-		return SLURM_ERROR;
-	}
 
 	if (step_layout->task_dist == SLURM_DIST_CYCLIC)
 		return _task_layout_cyclic(step_layout);