diff --git a/gax-java/gax-httpjson/src/main/java/com/google/api/gax/httpjson/HttpJsonClientCallImpl.java b/gax-java/gax-httpjson/src/main/java/com/google/api/gax/httpjson/HttpJsonClientCallImpl.java
index 6b9073544f..1aafbe73c1 100644
--- a/gax-java/gax-httpjson/src/main/java/com/google/api/gax/httpjson/HttpJsonClientCallImpl.java
+++ b/gax-java/gax-httpjson/src/main/java/com/google/api/gax/httpjson/HttpJsonClientCallImpl.java
@@ -173,20 +173,20 @@ public void start(Listener<ResponseT> responseListener, HttpJsonMetadata request
       Preconditions.checkState(this.listener == null, "The call is already started");
       this.listener = responseListener;
       this.requestHeaders = requestHeaders;
-    }
 
-    // Use the timeout duration value instead of calculating the future Instant
-    // Only schedule the deadline if the RPC timeout has been set in the RetrySettings
-    Duration timeout = callOptions.getTimeout();
-    if (timeout != null) {
-      // The future timeout value is guaranteed to not be a negative value as the
-      // RetryAlgorithm will not retry
-      long timeoutMs = timeout.toMillis();
-      // Assign the scheduled future so that it can be cancelled if the timeout task
-      // is not needed (response received prior to timeout)
-      timeoutFuture =
-          this.deadlineCancellationExecutor.schedule(
-              this::timeout, timeoutMs, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+      // Use the timeout duration value instead of calculating the future Instant
+      // Only schedule the deadline if the RPC timeout has been set in the RetrySettings
+      Duration timeout = callOptions.getTimeout();
+      if (timeout != null) {
+        // The future timeout value is guaranteed to not be a negative value as the
+        // RetryAlgorithm will not retry
+        long timeoutMs = timeout.toMillis();
+        // Assign the scheduled future so that it can be cancelled if the timeout task
+        // is not needed (response received prior to timeout)
+        timeoutFuture =
+            this.deadlineCancellationExecutor.schedule(
+                this::timeout, timeoutMs, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+      }
     }
   }