diff --git a/openslides/utils/person/__init__.py b/openslides/utils/person/__init__.py
index e262022b4..430f04c91 100644
--- a/openslides/utils/person/__init__.py
+++ b/openslides/utils/person/__init__.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ __all__ = ['receive_persons', 'generate_person_id', 'get_person', 'Person',
            'PersonField', 'PersonMixin', 'EmptyPerson']
 
 
-class EmptyPerson(PersonMixin):
+class EmptyPerson(PersonMixin, Person):
     @property
     def person_id(self):
         return 'empty'
diff --git a/openslides/utils/utils.py b/openslides/utils/utils.py
index d8f054eb0..4c787687a 100644
--- a/openslides/utils/utils.py
+++ b/openslides/utils/utils.py
@@ -142,12 +142,10 @@ def ajax_request(data):
 
 
 def _propper_unicode(text):
-    res = ''
     if not isinstance(text, unicode):
-        res = u"%s" % text.decode('UTF-8')
+        return u"%s" % text.decode('UTF-8')
     else:
-        res = text
-    return res
+        return text
 
 
 def decodedict(dict):