diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/action/SearchServiceTransportAction.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/action/SearchServiceTransportAction.java
index a6ce0ee2867..890c9f406e4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/action/SearchServiceTransportAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/action/SearchServiceTransportAction.java
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.*;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 
 /**
  * An encapsulation of {@link org.elasticsearch.search.SearchService} operations exposed through
@@ -67,6 +68,26 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
         }
     }
 
+    private static <T> void execute(Callable<? extends T> callable, SearchServiceListener<T> listener) {
+        // Listeners typically do counting on errors and successes, and the decision to move to second phase, etc. is based on
+        // these counts so we need to be careful here to never propagate exceptions thrown by onResult to onFailure
+        T result = null;
+        Throwable error = null;
+        try {
+            result = callable.call();
+        } catch (Throwable t) {
+            error = t;
+        } finally {
+            if (result == null) {
+                assert error != null;
+                listener.onFailure(error);
+            } else {
+                assert error == null : error;
+                listener.onResult(result);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     private final TransportService transportService;
 
     private final ClusterService clusterService;
@@ -164,12 +185,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteDfs(DiscoveryNode node, final ShardSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<DfsSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                DfsSearchResult result = searchService.executeDfsPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<DfsSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public DfsSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeDfsPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchDfsTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<DfsSearchResult>() {
 
@@ -198,12 +219,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteQuery(DiscoveryNode node, final ShardSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QuerySearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                QuerySearchResult result = searchService.executeQueryPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QuerySearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QuerySearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeQueryPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<QuerySearchResult>() {
 
@@ -232,12 +253,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteQuery(DiscoveryNode node, final QuerySearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QuerySearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                QuerySearchResult result = searchService.executeQueryPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QuerySearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QuerySearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeQueryPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryByIdTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<QuerySearchResult>() {
 
@@ -266,12 +287,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteQuery(DiscoveryNode node, final InternalScrollSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QuerySearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                ScrollQuerySearchResult result = searchService.executeQueryPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result.queryResult());
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QuerySearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QuerySearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeQueryPhase(request).queryResult();
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryScrollTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<ScrollQuerySearchResult>() {
 
@@ -300,12 +321,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteFetch(DiscoveryNode node, final ShardSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QueryFetchSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                QueryFetchSearchResult result = searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QueryFetchSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryFetchTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
 
@@ -334,12 +355,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteFetch(DiscoveryNode node, final QuerySearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QueryFetchSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                QueryFetchSearchResult result = searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QueryFetchSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryQueryFetchTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
 
@@ -368,12 +389,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteFetch(DiscoveryNode node, final InternalScrollSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QueryFetchSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                ScrollQueryFetchSearchResult result = searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result.result());
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QueryFetchSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeFetchPhase(request).result();
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchQueryFetchScrollTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<ScrollQueryFetchSearchResult>() {
 
@@ -402,12 +423,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteFetch(DiscoveryNode node, final FetchSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<FetchSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                FetchSearchResult result = searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<FetchSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public FetchSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeFetchPhase(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchFetchByIdTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<FetchSearchResult>() {
 
@@ -436,12 +457,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteScan(DiscoveryNode node, final ShardSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QuerySearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                QuerySearchResult result = searchService.executeScan(request);
-                listener.onResult(result);
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QuerySearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QuerySearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeScan(request);
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchScanTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<QuerySearchResult>() {
 
@@ -470,12 +491,12 @@ public class SearchServiceTransportAction extends AbstractComponent {
 
     public void sendExecuteScan(DiscoveryNode node, final InternalScrollSearchRequest request, final SearchServiceListener<QueryFetchSearchResult> listener) {
         if (clusterService.state().nodes().localNodeId().equals(node.id())) {
-            try {
-                ScrollQueryFetchSearchResult result = searchService.executeScan(request);
-                listener.onResult(result.result());
-            } catch (Throwable e) {
-                listener.onFailure(e);
-            }
+            execute(new Callable<QueryFetchSearchResult>() {
+                @Override
+                public QueryFetchSearchResult call() throws Exception {
+                    return searchService.executeScan(request).result();
+                }
+            }, listener);
         } else {
             transportService.sendRequest(node, SearchScanScrollTransportHandler.ACTION, request, new BaseTransportResponseHandler<ScrollQueryFetchSearchResult>() {