Index: trunk/ppMerge/src/ppMergeCombine.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/ppMerge/src/ppMergeCombine.c	(revision 13667)
+++ trunk/ppMerge/src/ppMergeCombine.c	(revision 13677)
@@ -265,7 +265,16 @@
             // Statistics on the merged cell
             if (data->statsFile) {
-                data->stats = ppStats(data->stats, data->out, view, options->combine->maskVal,
-                                      config); // Statistics for output FPA
-            }
+		if (!data->stats) {
+		    data->stats = psMetadataAlloc();
+		}
+                if (!ppStats(data->stats, 
+			     data->out, 
+			     view, 
+			     options->combine->maskVal,
+			     config)) {
+                    psError(PS_ERR_UNEXPECTED_NULL, true, "Unable to generate stats for image.\n");
+		    return false;
+		}
+	    }
 
             // We threw away the bias sections --- record this