Meteor title validation not working

I set up a meteor method to check if the current item's title has been used but I'm not getting the alert I specified. Below is my "PortfolioItems" collection file.

PortfolioItems = new Mongo.Collection('portfolioItems');

Meteor.methods({
    portfolioItemInsert: function(portfolioItemAttributes) {
        check(Meteor.userId(), String);
        check(portfolioItemAttributes, {
            title: String
        });

        var portfolioItemWithSameTitle = PortfolioItems.findOne({ title: portfolioItemAttributes.title});
        if (portfolioItemWithSameTitle) {
            return {
                portfolioItemExists: true,
                _id: portfolioItemWithSameTitle._id
            }
        }

        var user = Meteor.user();
        var portfolioItem = _.extend(portfolioItemAttributes, {
            userId: user._id,
            submitted: new Date()
        });

        var portfolioItemId = PortfolioItems.insert(portfolioItem);
        return {
            _id: portfolioItemId
        };
    }
});

And the submit.js file:

Template.submit.events({
    'submit #submit-form': function(e) {
        e.preventDefault();

        var portfolioItem = {
            title: $(e.target).find('#submit-title').val()
        };

        Meteor.call('portfolioItemInsert', portfolioItem, function(error, result) {
            if (error) {
                return alert(error.reason);
            }

            if(result.portfolioItemWithSameTitle) {
                alert('Title already taken!');
            }

            Router.go('portfolioItemPage', {_id: result._id});
        });
    }
});

PS. The item won't actually show up as duplicates, but the alert won't show stating it's a duplicate.