diff --git a/docs/client/api.html b/docs/client/api.html
index 4300236b42..68d3d4cfd4 100644
--- a/docs/client/api.html
+++ b/docs/client/api.html
@@ -2826,12 +2826,13 @@ standard `x-www-form-urlencoded` content type, unless the `content`
 or `data` option is used to specify a body, in which case the
 parameters will be appended to the URL instead.
 
-The callback receives two arguments, `error` and `result`.  The `error`
-argument will contain an Error if the request fails in any way,
-including a network error, time-out, or an HTTP status code in the 400
-or 500 range.  The result object is always
-defined. When run in synchronous mode, the `result` is returned from the
-function, and the `error` value is a stored as a property in `result`.
+The callback receives two arguments, `error` and `result`.  The
+`error` argument will contain an Error if the request fails in any
+way, including a network error, time-out, or an HTTP status code in
+the 400 or 500 range.  In case of a 4xx/5xx HTTP status code, the
+`response` property on `error` matches the contents the result object
+would have had otherwise.  When run in synchronous mode, either
+`result` is returned from the function, or `error` is thrown.
 
 Contents of the result object:
 
@@ -2853,11 +2854,6 @@ Contents of the result object:
   <span class="type">Object</span></dt>
 <dd>A dictionary of HTTP headers from the response.</dd>
 
-<dt><span class="name">error</span>
-  <span class="type">Error</span></dt>
-<dd>Error object if the request failed. Matches the <code>error</code> callback parameter.</dd>
-
-
 </dl>
 
 Example server method:
diff --git a/packages/http/httpcall_server.js b/packages/http/httpcall_server.js
index e3f24157ed..e7554b0daa 100644
--- a/packages/http/httpcall_server.js
+++ b/packages/http/httpcall_server.js
@@ -65,7 +65,10 @@ Meteor.http.call = function(method, url, options, callback) {
     // Sync mode
     fut = new Future;
     callback = function(error, result) {
-      fut.ret(result);
+      if (error)
+        fut.throw(error);
+      else
+        fut.ret(result);
     };
   } else {
     // Async mode
@@ -75,13 +78,13 @@ Meteor.http.call = function(method, url, options, callback) {
     });
   }
 
-  // wrap callback to always return a result object, and always
-  // have an 'error' property in result
+  // wrap callback to add a 'response' property on an error, in case
+  // we have both (http 4xx/5xx error, which has a response payload)
   callback = (function(callback) {
-    return function(error, result) {
-      result = result || {};
-      result.error = error;
-      callback(error, result);
+    return function(error, response) {
+      if (error && response)
+        error.response = response;
+      callback(error, response);
     };
   })(callback);