diff --git a/camelot/utils.py b/camelot/utils.py
index d04578d..a7d6d16 100644
--- a/camelot/utils.py
+++ b/camelot/utils.py
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ def text_in_bbox(bbox, text):
                 continue
             if bbox_intersect(ba, bb):
                 # if the intersection is larger than 80% of ba's size, we keep the longest
-                if (bbox_area(ba)>0) and ((bbox_intersection_area(ba, bb) / bbox_area(ba)) > 0.8):
+                if (bbox_area(ba)==0) or ((bbox_intersection_area(ba, bb) / bbox_area(ba)) > 0.8):
                     if bbox_longer(bb, ba):
                         rest.discard(ba)
     unique_boxes = list(rest)