diff --git a/bigtree/tree/modify.py b/bigtree/tree/modify.py
index 212a51c8..0f2e9f7b 100644
--- a/bigtree/tree/modify.py
+++ b/bigtree/tree/modify.py
@@ -1069,6 +1069,7 @@ def _merge_attribute(
                 common_attribute + "_y",
             ]
         )
+    merged_data = merged_data.sort_values("path")
     return construct.dataframe_to_tree(merged_data)
 
 
diff --git a/tests/tree/test_modify.py b/tests/tree/test_modify.py
index 0c95e167..07b10a2c 100644
--- a/tests/tree/test_modify.py
+++ b/tests/tree/test_modify.py
@@ -2454,7 +2454,6 @@ def test_copy_nodes_from_tree_to_tree_merge_leaves_merge_attribute(self):
             merge_leaves=True,
             merge_attribute=True,
         )
-        self.root_other_full_wrong["b"].sort(key=lambda node: node.node_name)
         assert_tree_structure_basenode_root(self.root_other_full_wrong)
         assert_tree_structure_basenode_root_attr(self.root_other_full_wrong)
         assert_tree_structure_node_root(self.root_other_full_wrong)