diff --git a/exceptions/CassandraException.java b/exceptions/CassandraException.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aaa8055ef1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exceptions/CassandraException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.cassandra.exceptions;
+
+public abstract class CassandraException extends Exception implements TransportException
+{
+    private final ExceptionCode code;
+
+    protected CassandraException(ExceptionCode code, String msg)
+    {
+        super(msg);
+        this.code = code;
+    }
+
+    protected CassandraException(ExceptionCode code, String msg, Throwable cause)
+    {
+        super(msg, cause);
+        this.code = code;
+    }
+
+    public ExceptionCode code()
+    {
+        return code;
+    }
+}