diff --git a/ompi/mca/io/romio314/src/io_romio314_module.c b/ompi/mca/io/romio314/src/io_romio314_module.c
index 17de0e125f5..3d7537aec52 100644
--- a/ompi/mca/io/romio314/src/io_romio314_module.c
+++ b/ompi/mca/io/romio314/src/io_romio314_module.c
@@ -139,6 +139,14 @@ void ADIOI_Datatype_iscontig(MPI_Datatype datatype, int *flag)
      * In addition, if the data is contiguous but true_lb differes
      * from zero, ROMIO will ignore the displacement. Thus, lie!
      */
+
+    size_t size;
+    opal_datatype_type_size (&datatype->super, &size);
+    if ( 0 == size ) {
+        *flag = 1;
+        return;
+    }
+
     *flag = ompi_datatype_is_contiguous_memory_layout(datatype, 2);
     if (*flag) {
         MPI_Aint true_extent, true_lb;