diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/commandline/IntervalBinding.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/commandline/IntervalBinding.java
index 9e2c9a818..0c6096e0c 100644
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/commandline/IntervalBinding.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/commandline/IntervalBinding.java
@@ -98,8 +98,8 @@ public final class IntervalBinding<T extends Feature> {
                     intervals.add(toolkit.getGenomeLocParser().createGenomeLoc(feature));
                     line = lineReader.readLine();
                 }
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-                throw new UserException("Problem reading the interval file " + featureIntervals.getSource() + "; " + e.getMessage());
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                throw new UserException.MalformedFile(featureIntervals.getSource(), "Problem reading the interval file", e);
             }
 
         } else {