diff --git a/src/nvidia/src/kernel/rmapi/event_notification.c b/src/nvidia/src/kernel/rmapi/event_notification.c
index cf78eadd..d6937cac 100644
--- a/src/nvidia/src/kernel/rmapi/event_notification.c
+++ b/src/nvidia/src/kernel/rmapi/event_notification.c
@@ -286,11 +286,11 @@ static NV_STATUS _gpuEngineEventNotificationListNotify
     portSyncSpinlockAcquire(pEventNotificationList->pSpinlock);
     {
         // We don't expect this to be called multiple times in parallel
-        NV_ASSERT_OR_ELSE(pEventNotificationList->pendingEventNotifyCount == 0,
+        if (pEventNotificationList->pendingEventNotifyCount != 0)
         {
             portSyncSpinlockRelease(pEventNotificationList->pSpinlock);
             return NV_ERR_INVALID_STATE;
-        });
+        }

         EngineEventNotificationListIter it =
             listIterAll(&pEventNotificationList->eventNotificationList);