diff --git a/Mac/Modules/file/_Filemodule.c b/Mac/Modules/file/_Filemodule.c
index 36ef03ce9cb..81f0c02ee0c 100644
--- a/Mac/Modules/file/_Filemodule.c
+++ b/Mac/Modules/file/_Filemodule.c
@@ -3204,11 +3204,10 @@ PyMac_GetFSRef(PyObject *v, FSRef *fsr)
                 char *path = NULL;
                 if (!PyArg_Parse(v, "et", Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding, &path))
                         return 0;
-                if ( (err=FSPathMakeRef(path, fsr, NULL)) ) {
+                if ( (err=FSPathMakeRef(path, fsr, NULL)) )
                         PyMac_Error(err);
-                        return 0;
-                }
-                return 1;
+                PyMem_Free(path);
+                return !err;
         }
         /* XXXX Should try unicode here too */
         /* Otherwise we try to go via an FSSpec */