diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/smpdtfmt.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/smpdtfmt.cpp
index 18a444dd84a..468eaccafb4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/smpdtfmt.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/smpdtfmt.cpp
@@ -337,7 +337,7 @@ class SimpleDateFormatMutableNFs : public UMemory {
         }
         U_ASSERT(idx < UDAT_FIELD_COUNT);
         nodes[idx].key = &nf;
-        nodes[idx].value = (NumberFormat *) nf.clone();
+        nodes[idx].value = (&nf == NULL) ? NULL : (NumberFormat *) nf.clone();
         return nodes[idx].value;
     }
  private:
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/dtfmttst.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/dtfmttst.cpp
index e15fa9e8e3e..0e9135d4b99 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/dtfmttst.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/dtfmttst.cpp
@@ -2506,7 +2506,7 @@ void DateFormatTest::TestDateFormatSymbolsClone(void)
     Locale valid1;
     Locale actual1;
     if (!getActualAndValidLocales(*fmt, valid1, actual1)) {
-        errln("FAIL: Could not fetch valid + actual locales");
+        dataerrln("FAIL: Could not fetch valid + actual locales");
         return;
     }
     LocalPointer<Format> fmtClone(fmt->clone());
@@ -3835,7 +3835,9 @@ void DateFormatTest::TestFormalChineseDate() {
     
     // create formatter 
     SimpleDateFormat *sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern,override,Locale::getChina(),status);
-    failure(status, "new SimpleDateFormat with override", TRUE); 
+    if (failure(status, "new SimpleDateFormat with override", TRUE)) {
+        return;
+    }
 
     UDate thedate = date(2009-1900, UCAL_JULY, 28);
     FieldPosition pos(0);
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/loctest.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/loctest.cpp
index 20feb407412..3053e30f438 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/loctest.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/loctest.cpp
@@ -2097,7 +2097,7 @@ void LocaleTest::checkRegisteredCollators(const char *expectExtra) {
     // the 'old' list (non enumeration)
     const Locale*  oldList = Collator::getAvailableLocales(count1);
     if(oldList == NULL) {
-        errln("Error: Collator::getAvailableLocales(count) returned NULL");
+        dataerrln("Error: Collator::getAvailableLocales(count) returned NULL");
         return;
     }
 
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
index 56e2be45c48..2fb0a40b530 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
@@ -1385,9 +1385,11 @@ void RBBIAPITest::TestFilteredBreakIteratorBuilder() {
     baseBI.adoptInstead(BreakIterator::createSentenceInstance(Locale::getFrench(), status));
     TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
 
-    logln("Building new BI\n");
-    frenchBI.adoptInstead(builder->build(baseBI.orphan(), status));
-    TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
+    if (U_SUCCESS(status)) {
+        logln("Building new BI\n");
+        frenchBI.adoptInstead(builder->build(baseBI.orphan(), status));
+        TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
+    }
 
     if(frenchBI.isValid()) {
       logln("Testing:");