diff --git a/git-submodule.sh b/git-submodule.sh
index 33bc41f069d..c21b77aee54 100755
--- a/git-submodule.sh
+++ b/git-submodule.sh
@@ -93,20 +93,6 @@ module_clone()
 	url=$2
 	reference="$3"
 
-	# If there already is a directory at the submodule path,
-	# expect it to be empty (since that is the default checkout
-	# action) and try to remove it.
-	# Note: if $path is a symlink to a directory the test will
-	# succeed but the rmdir will fail. We might want to fix this.
-	if test -d "$path"
-	then
-		rmdir "$path" 2>/dev/null ||
-		die "Directory '$path' exists, but is neither empty nor a git repository"
-	fi
-
-	test -e "$path" &&
-	die "A file already exist at path '$path'"
-
 	if test -n "$reference"
 	then
 		git-clone "$reference" -n "$url" "$path"
@@ -241,7 +227,7 @@ cmd_add()
 			# ash fails to wordsplit ${branch:+-b "$branch"...}
 			case "$branch" in
 			'') git checkout -f -q ;;
-			?*) git checkout -f -q -b "$branch" "origin/$branch" ;;
+			?*) git checkout -f -q -B "$branch" "origin/$branch" ;;
 			esac
 		) || die "Unable to checkout submodule '$path'"
 	fi
diff --git a/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh b/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
index 782b0a3ece7..2c49db9f624 100755
--- a/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
+++ b/t/t7400-submodule-basic.sh
@@ -421,11 +421,29 @@ test_expect_success 'add submodules without specifying an explicit path' '
 		git commit -m "repo commit 1"
 	) &&
 	git clone --bare repo/ bare.git &&
-	cd addtest &&
-	git submodule add "$submodurl/repo" &&
-	git config -f .gitmodules submodule.repo.path repo &&
-	git submodule add "$submodurl/bare.git" &&
-	git config -f .gitmodules submodule.bare.path bare
+	(
+		cd addtest &&
+		git submodule add "$submodurl/repo" &&
+		git config -f .gitmodules submodule.repo.path repo &&
+		git submodule add "$submodurl/bare.git" &&
+		git config -f .gitmodules submodule.bare.path bare
+	)
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'add should fail when path is used by a file' '
+	(
+		cd addtest &&
+		touch file &&
+		test_must_fail	git submodule add "$submodurl/repo" file
+	)
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'add should fail when path is used by an existing directory' '
+	(
+		cd addtest &&
+		mkdir empty-dir &&
+		test_must_fail git submodule add "$submodurl/repo" empty-dir
+	)
 '
 
 test_done