diff --git a/mercurial/merge.py b/mercurial/merge.py
--- a/mercurial/merge.py
+++ b/mercurial/merge.py
@@ -23,15 +23,13 @@ class mergestate(object):
     def _read(self):
         self._state = {}
         try:
-            localnode = None
             f = self._repo.opener("merge/state")
             for i, l in enumerate(f):
                 if i == 0:
-                    localnode = l[:-1]
+                    self._local = bin(l[:-1])
                 else:
                     bits = l[:-1].split("\0")
                     self._state[bits[0]] = bits[1:]
-            self._local = bin(localnode)
         except IOError, err:
             if err.errno != errno.ENOENT:
                 raise
diff --git a/tests/test-resolve b/tests/test-resolve
--- a/tests/test-resolve
+++ b/tests/test-resolve
@@ -25,3 +25,9 @@ hg commit -m 'resolved'
 
 echo % resolve -l, should be empty
 hg resolve -l
+
+# test crashed merge with empty mergestate
+mkdir .hg/merge
+touch .hg/merge/state
+echo % resolve -l, should be empty
+hg resolve -l
diff --git a/tests/test-resolve.out b/tests/test-resolve.out
--- a/tests/test-resolve.out
+++ b/tests/test-resolve.out
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ created new head
 0 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 1 files unresolved
 use 'hg resolve' to retry unresolved file merges or 'hg update -C' to abandon
 % resolve -l, should be empty
+% resolve -l, should be empty