diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 000867aa262..3b36f4e1abe 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -811,6 +811,7 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
                doing rolling-restart.sh
    HBASE-3383  [0.90RC1] bin/hbase script displays "no such file" warning on
                target/cached_classpath.txt
+   HBASE-3344  Master aborts after RPC to server that was shutting down
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
index 2b345fb2ff5..a501efec081 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/AssignmentManager.java
@@ -1122,6 +1122,10 @@ public class AssignmentManager extends ZooKeeperListener {
         // Failed to close, so pass through and reassign
         LOG.debug("Server " + server + " returned " + ioe + " for " +
           region.getEncodedName());
+      } else if (ioe instanceof EOFException) {
+        // Failed to close, so pass through and reassign
+        LOG.debug("Server " + server + " returned " + ioe + " for " +
+          region.getEncodedName());
       } else {
         this.master.abort("Remote unexpected exception", ioe);
       }