restarting and reloading ssh doesn't work

[Lukav]

I have an install script that does various things including increasing ssh security by altering config files.
After altering it does reload or restart as appropriate.
I've noticed that in ubuntu 14.04 it stopped working.
The cause of the problem is the function in /etc/init.d/ssh
check_for_upstart() {
    if init_is_upstart; then
        exit $1
    fi
}

Before: start, reload and others it is called as:
check_for_upstart 1
Which basically means that if we have upstart installed and in use exit with an error.
This kills my script since it has set -e option in case anything goes wrong as in this case.

I'm not sure why this is written like this but if it really should exit with an error it should at least state what the error is.

P.S. I've found the same behaviour in

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[sergiomb (sergio-sergiomb)]

I have the same problem ubuntu 14.04 and exit 1 in check_for_upstart 1 , please
  what is the workaround ?

Thanks.

[Lukav (lukav)]

Unfortunately I have no recollection of solving the problem. And I've removed or upgraded all 14.04 instances