diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFSheet.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFSheet.java
index b6ad9c9be..eb097c62e 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFSheet.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFSheet.java
@@ -209,12 +209,14 @@ public final class HSSFSheet implements org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Sheet {
                 hrow = getRow(cval.getRow());
                 lastrow = hrow;
                 if (hrow == null) {
+                    /* we removed this check, see bug 47245 for the discussion around this
                     // Some tools (like Perl module Spreadsheet::WriteExcel - bug 41187) skip the RowRecords
                     // Excel, OpenOffice.org and GoogleDocs are all OK with this, so POI should be too.
                     if (rowRecordsAlreadyPresent) {
                         // if at least one row record is present, all should be present.
                         throw new RuntimeException("Unexpected missing row when some rows already present");
-                    }
+                    }*/
+
                     // create the row record on the fly now.
                     RowRecord rowRec = new RowRecord(cval.getRow());
                     sheet.addRow(rowRec);
diff --git a/test-data/spreadsheet/47245_test.xls b/test-data/spreadsheet/47245_test.xls
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2e30bd5ec
Binary files /dev/null and b/test-data/spreadsheet/47245_test.xls differ