diff --git a/pact/pact-runtime/src/main/java/eu/stratosphere/pact/runtime/task/DataSinkTask.java b/pact/pact-runtime/src/main/java/eu/stratosphere/pact/runtime/task/DataSinkTask.java
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/pact/pact-runtime/src/main/java/eu/stratosphere/pact/runtime/task/DataSinkTask.java
+++ b/pact/pact-runtime/src/main/java/eu/stratosphere/pact/runtime/task/DataSinkTask.java
@@ -394,8 +394,7 @@ public class DataSinkTask<IT> extends AbstractOutputTask
 		}
 		catch (IOException e) {
 			LOG.error("Could not access the file system to detemine the status of the output.", e);
-			// any other kind of I/O exception: we assume only a degree of one here
-			return 1;
+			throw new RuntimeException("I/O Error while accessing file", e);
 		}
 	}
throw exception instead of return max dop of 1 one IOException (from file system/hdfs)