diff --git a/daemon/daemon.go b/daemon/daemon.go
index 16510316b5..0a094e3087 100644
--- a/daemon/daemon.go
+++ b/daemon/daemon.go
@@ -949,25 +949,30 @@ func (daemon *Daemon) shutdownContainer(c *container.Container) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// ShutdownTimeout returns the shutdown timeout based on the max stopTimeout of the containers,
-// and is limited by daemon's ShutdownTimeout.
+// ShutdownTimeout returns the timeout (in seconds) before containers are forcibly
+// killed during shutdown. The default timeout can be configured both on the daemon
+// and per container, and the longest timeout will be used. A grace-period of
+// 5 seconds is added to the configured timeout.
+//
+// A negative (-1) timeout means "indefinitely", which means that containers
+// are not forcibly killed, and the daemon shuts down after all containers exit.
 func (daemon *Daemon) ShutdownTimeout() int {
-	// By default we use daemon's ShutdownTimeout.
 	shutdownTimeout := daemon.configStore.ShutdownTimeout
+	if shutdownTimeout < 0 {
+		return -1
+	}
+	if daemon.containers == nil {
+		return shutdownTimeout
+	}
 
 	graceTimeout := 5
-	if daemon.containers != nil {
-		for _, c := range daemon.containers.List() {
-			if shutdownTimeout >= 0 {
-				stopTimeout := c.StopTimeout()
-				if stopTimeout < 0 {
-					shutdownTimeout = -1
-				} else {
-					if stopTimeout+graceTimeout > shutdownTimeout {
-						shutdownTimeout = stopTimeout + graceTimeout
-					}
-				}
-			}
+	for _, c := range daemon.containers.List() {
+		stopTimeout := c.StopTimeout()
+		if stopTimeout < 0 {
+			return -1
+		}
+		if stopTimeout+graceTimeout > shutdownTimeout {
+			shutdownTimeout = stopTimeout + graceTimeout
 		}
 	}
 	return shutdownTimeout