diff --git a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/method/BaseMethodBinding.java b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/method/BaseMethodBinding.java
index 9c976aaa357..cb3fadf02b8 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/method/BaseMethodBinding.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/method/BaseMethodBinding.java
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ public abstract class BaseMethodBinding<T> implements IClientResponseHandler<T>
 			if (!verifyIsValidResourceReturnType(returnTypeFromMethod) && !IResource.class.equals(returnTypeFromMethod)) {
 				throw new ConfigurationException("Method '" + theMethod.getName() + "' from " + IResourceProvider.class.getSimpleName() + " type " + theMethod.getDeclaringClass().getCanonicalName()
 						+ " returns a collection with generic type " + toLogString(returnTypeFromMethod)
-						+ " - Must return a resource type or a collection (List, Set) with a resource type parameter (e.g. List<Patient> )");
+						+ " - Must return a resource type or a collection (List, Set) with a resource type parameter (e.g. List<Patient> or List<IResource> )");
 			}
 		} else {
 			if (!IResource.class.equals(returnTypeFromMethod) && !verifyIsValidResourceReturnType(returnTypeFromMethod)) {
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/MethodPriorityTest.java b/hapi-fhir-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/MethodPriorityTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f46c4dfaef1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hapi-fhir-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/MethodPriorityTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+package ca.uhn.fhir.rest.server;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
+import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
+import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
+import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;
+import org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder;
+import org.hamcrest.core.StringContains;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import ca.uhn.fhir.context.FhirContext;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.model.api.IResource;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.model.dstu.resource.Observation;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.narrative.DefaultThymeleafNarrativeGenerator;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.annotation.OptionalParam;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.annotation.RequiredParam;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.annotation.Search;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.rest.param.StringParam;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.testutil.RandomServerPortProvider;
+
+/**
+ * Created by dsotnikov on 2/25/2014.
+ */
+public class MethodPriorityTest {
+
+	private static CloseableHttpClient ourClient;
+	private static FhirContext ourCtx = new FhirContext();
+	private static int ourPort;
+	private static Server ourServer;
+	private static RestfulServer ourServlet;
+
+	public void testOmitEmptyOptionalParam() throws Exception {
+		ourServlet.setResourceProviders(new DummyObservationResourceProvider());
+		ourServer.start();
+
+		HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet("http://localhost:" + ourPort + "/Observation?name=name");
+		HttpResponse status = ourClient.execute(httpGet);
+		String responseContent = IOUtils.toString(status.getEntity().getContent());
+		IOUtils.closeQuietly(status.getEntity().getContent());
+		assertEquals(200, status.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());
+		assertThat(responseContent, StringContains.containsString("01"));
+
+		httpGet = new HttpGet("http://localhost:" + ourPort + "/Observation?_id=id");
+		status = ourClient.execute(httpGet);
+		responseContent = IOUtils.toString(status.getEntity().getContent());
+		IOUtils.closeQuietly(status.getEntity().getContent());
+		assertEquals(200, status.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());
+		assertThat(responseContent, StringContains.containsString("02"));
+	}
+
+	@After
+	public void after() throws Exception {
+		ourServer.stop();
+	}
+
+	@BeforeClass
+	public static void beforeClass() throws Exception {
+		ourPort = RandomServerPortProvider.findFreePort();
+		ourServer = new Server(ourPort);
+
+		ServletHandler proxyHandler = new ServletHandler();
+		ourServlet = new RestfulServer();
+		ourServlet.setFhirContext(ourCtx);
+		ourServlet.getFhirContext().setNarrativeGenerator(new DefaultThymeleafNarrativeGenerator());
+
+		ServletHolder servletHolder = new ServletHolder(ourServlet);
+		proxyHandler.addServletWithMapping(servletHolder, "/*");
+		ourServer.setHandler(proxyHandler);
+
+		PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager connectionManager = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager(5000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+		HttpClientBuilder builder = HttpClientBuilder.create();
+		builder.setConnectionManager(connectionManager);
+		ourClient = builder.build();
+
+	}
+
+	public static class DummyObservationResourceProvider implements IResourceProvider {
+
+		@Override
+		public Class<? extends IResource> getResourceType() {
+			return Observation.class;
+		}
+
+		@SuppressWarnings("unused")
+		@Search
+		public List<Observation> search01(@OptionalParam(name = Observation.SP_NAME) StringParam theName) {
+			List<Observation> retVal = new ArrayList<Observation>();
+			Observation o = new Observation();
+			o.setId("01");
+			o.getName().setText("search01");
+			retVal.add(o);
+			return retVal;
+		}
+
+		@SuppressWarnings("unused")
+		@Search
+		public List<Observation> search02(@RequiredParam(name = "_id") StringParam theId) {
+			List<Observation> retVal = new ArrayList<Observation>();
+			Observation o = new Observation();
+			o.setId("02");
+			o.getName().setText("search02");
+			retVal.add(o);
+			return retVal;
+
+		}
+	}
+
+}