diff --git a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolver.java b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolver.java
index 8b63821bd7..6ffe9310df 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolver.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolver.java
@@ -333,7 +333,12 @@ public class ClassTypeResolver extends JavaParserVisitorAdapter {
                 if (isMemberVisibleFromClass(typeToSearch.getType(), field.getModifiers(), accessingClass)) {
                     return typeToSearch.resolveTypeDefinition(field.getGenericType());
                 }
-            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) { /* swallow */ }
+            } catch (final NoSuchFieldException ignored) {
+                // swallow
+            } catch (final NoClassDefFoundError e) {
+                // TODO : report a missing class once we start doing that...
+                return null;
+            }
 
             // transform the type into it's supertype
             typeToSearch = typeToSearch.resolveTypeDefinition(typeToSearch.getType().getGenericSuperclass());
diff --git a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolverTest.java b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolverTest.java
index effb9d7a29..a649724400 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolverTest.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/typeresolution/ClassTypeResolverTest.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 package net.sourceforge.pmd.typeresolution;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertSame;