diff --git a/lib/runner.js b/lib/runner.js
index 39571316be..8c2478ad5d 100644
--- a/lib/runner.js
+++ b/lib/runner.js
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ var Pending = require('./pending');
 var utils = require('./utils');
 var inherits = utils.inherits;
 var debug = require('debug')('mocha:runner');
+var Runnable = require('./runnable');
 var filter = utils.filter;
 var indexOf = utils.indexOf;
 var keys = utils.keys;
@@ -64,6 +65,7 @@ function Runner(suite, delay) {
   this._abort = false;
   this._delay = delay;
   this.suite = suite;
+  this.started = false;
   this.total = suite.total();
   this.failures = 0;
   this.on('test end', function(test) {
@@ -653,7 +655,20 @@ Runner.prototype.uncaught = function(err) {
   err.uncaught = true;
 
   var runnable = this.currentRunnable;
+
   if (!runnable) {
+    runnable = new Runnable('Uncaught error outside test suite');
+    runnable.parent = this.suite;
+
+    if (this.started) {
+      this.fail(runnable, err);
+    } else {
+      // Can't recover from this failure
+      this.emit('start');
+      this.fail(runnable, err);
+      this.emit('end');
+    }
+
     return;
   }
 
@@ -712,6 +727,7 @@ Runner.prototype.run = function(fn) {
   }
 
   function start() {
+    self.started = true;
     self.emit('start');
     self.runSuite(rootSuite, function() {
       debug('finished running');
diff --git a/test/integration/fixtures/options/delay-fail.js b/test/integration/fixtures/options/delay-fail.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1475c918d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/fixtures/options/delay-fail.js
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+setTimeout(function() {
+  throw new Error('oops');
+  it('test', function() {});
+  run();
+}, 100);
diff --git a/test/integration/options.js b/test/integration/options.js
index db3710913b..52eff4b451 100644
--- a/test/integration/options.js
+++ b/test/integration/options.js
@@ -96,6 +96,20 @@ describe('options', function() {
         done();
       });
     });
+
+    it('should throw an error if the test suite failed to run', function(done) {
+      run('options/delay-fail.js', args, function(err, res) {
+        assert(!err);
+        assert.equal(res.stats.pending, 0);
+        assert.equal(res.stats.passes, 0);
+        assert.equal(res.stats.failures, 1);
+
+        assert.equal(res.failures[0].title,
+          'Uncaught error outside test suite');
+        assert.equal(res.code, 1);
+        done();
+      });
+    });
   });
 
   describe('--grep', function() {