diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableOutputFormat.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableOutputFormat.java
index eb4b66f3dcf..8878eeeccb5 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableOutputFormat.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapred/TableOutputFormat.java
@@ -84,11 +84,14 @@ public class TableOutputFormat extends FileOutputFormat<ImmutableBytesWritable,
     }
 
     public void close(Reporter reporter) throws IOException {
-      if (this.m_mutator != null) {
-        this.m_mutator.close();
-      }
-      if (conn != null) {
-        this.conn.close();
+      try {
+        if (this.m_mutator != null) {
+          this.m_mutator.close();
+        }
+      } finally {
+        if (conn != null) {
+          this.conn.close();
+        }
       }
     }
 
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableOutputFormat.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableOutputFormat.java
index 615999f9d49..5986df8fc38 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableOutputFormat.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/mapreduce/TableOutputFormat.java
@@ -115,10 +115,16 @@ implements Configurable {
      * @see RecordWriter#close(TaskAttemptContext)
      */
     @Override
-    public void close(TaskAttemptContext context)
-    throws IOException {
-      mutator.close();
-      connection.close();
+    public void close(TaskAttemptContext context) throws IOException {
+      try {
+        if (mutator != null) {
+          mutator.close();
+        }
+      } finally {
+        if (connection != null) {
+          connection.close();
+        }
+      }
     }
 
     /**