diff --git a/PyNutil/read_and_write.py b/PyNutil/read_and_write.py
index 728a6abe410d4cba04440d1888eda510f3a6b6ae..92c59656baef4c652c2e4f88a2553ac3f72de5aa 100644
--- a/PyNutil/read_and_write.py
+++ b/PyNutil/read_and_write.py
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ def load_visualign_json(filename):
             slice["nr"] = int(re.search(r"_s(\d+)", slice["filename"]).group(1))
             if "ouv" in slice:
                 slice["anchoring"] = slice["ouv"]
-            else:
-                slice["anchoring"] = []
+
         name = os.path.basename(filename)
         lz_compat_file = {
             "name":name,