diff --git a/pyoptsparse/pyParOpt/ParOpt.py b/pyoptsparse/pyParOpt/ParOpt.py
index c36b4e7f..cc04bbfa 100644
--- a/pyoptsparse/pyParOpt/ParOpt.py
+++ b/pyoptsparse/pyParOpt/ParOpt.py
@@ -3,4 +3,8 @@
 except:
 
     class ParOpt:
-        pass
+        def __init__(self, raiseError=True, options={}):
+            name = "ParOpt"
+            category = "Local Optimizer"
+            if raiseError:
+                raise Error("There was an error importing ParOpt")