clover html plugin fails when no source files are present

when running the maven clover plugin to generate html report on a project with no java source files, i recieve this error:
BUILD FAILED
File...... file:/C:/Documents and Settings/ryansonnek/.maven/plugins/maven-clover-plugin-1.4/plugin.jelly
Element... ant:clover-report
Line...... 203
Column.... 21
com.cortexeb.tools.clover.r: java.io.FileNotFoundException: Unable to load database at 'D:\projects\riva\riva-ear\target\clover\database\clover_coverage.db'
Total time: 49 seconds
Finished at: Mon May 10 22:20:03 CDT 2004

in my j2ee multiproject environment, the parent project has the clover report defined so that all extending projects inherit the list of reports. all of the subprojects have java source files, except for the ear subproject, and that is where this errors out.