diff --git a/app/controllers/todos_controller.rb b/app/controllers/todos_controller.rb
index 5e413fed..bba83f78 100644
--- a/app/controllers/todos_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/todos_controller.rb
@@ -417,6 +417,8 @@ class TodosController < ApplicationController
     @context_id = @todo.context_id
     @project_id = @todo.project_id
     @todo_was_destroyed_from_deferred_state = @todo.deferred?
+    @todo_was_destroyed_from_pending_state = @todo.pending?
+    @todo_was_destroyed_from_deferred_or_pending_state = @todo_was_destroyed_from_deferred_state || @todo_was_destroyed_from_pending_state
 
     # activate successors if they only depend on this todo
     activated_successor_count = 0
diff --git a/app/helpers/todos_helper.rb b/app/helpers/todos_helper.rb
index a02657c4..5c846752 100644
--- a/app/helpers/todos_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/todos_helper.rb
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ module TodosHelper
       page.project  {
         container_id = "p#{@original_item_project_id}empty-nd" if @remaining_in_context == 0
         container_id = "tickler-empty-nd" if (
-          ( (@todo_was_activated_from_deferred_state || @todo_was_activated_from_pending_state) && @remaining_deferred_or_pending_count == 0) ||
+          ( (@todo_was_activated_from_deferred_state || @todo_was_activated_from_pending_state || @todo_was_destroyed_from_deferred_or_pending_state) && @remaining_deferred_or_pending_count == 0) ||
             (@original_item_was_deferred && @remaining_deferred_or_pending_count == 0 && @todo.completed?) )
         container_id = "empty-d" if @completed_count && @completed_count == 0 && !@todo.completed?
       }