diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 4714705054b..bfa3e4e345d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -142,6 +142,8 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-2026  NPE in StoreScanner on compaction
    HBASE-2072  fs.automatic.close isn't passed to FileSystem
    HBASE-2075  Master requires HDFS superuser privileges due to waitOnSafeMode
+   HBASE-2077  NullPointerException with an open scanner that expired causing 
+               an immediate region server shutdown (Sam Pullara via JD)
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-1760  Cleanup TODOs in HTable
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/Leases.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/Leases.java
index ad00864f97f..64f9bab8c64 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/Leases.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/Leases.java
@@ -183,11 +183,13 @@ public class Leases extends Thread {
   public void renewLease(final String leaseName) throws LeaseException {
     synchronized (leaseQueue) {
       Lease lease = leases.get(leaseName);
-      if (lease == null) {
+      // We need to check to see if the remove is successful as the poll in the run()
+      // method could have completed between the get and the remove which will result
+      // in a corrupt leaseQueue.
+      if (lease == null || !leaseQueue.remove(lease)) {
         throw new LeaseException("lease '" + leaseName +
-            "' does not exist");
+                "' does not exist or has already expired");
       }
-      leaseQueue.remove(lease);
       lease.setExpirationTime(System.currentTimeMillis() + leasePeriod);
       leaseQueue.add(lease);
     }