diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/CalciteRexNodeVisitor.java b/core/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/CalciteRexNodeVisitor.java
index 44c6d87da1..3c37a11ba5 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/CalciteRexNodeVisitor.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/CalciteRexNodeVisitor.java
@@ -835,6 +835,7 @@ public RexNode visitCast(Cast node, CalcitePlanContext context) {
   @Override
   public RexNode visitCase(Case node, CalcitePlanContext context) {
     List<RexNode> caseOperands = new ArrayList<>();
+    List<RelDataType> resultTypes = new ArrayList<>();
     for (When when : node.getWhenClauses()) {
       RexNode condition = analyze(when.getCondition(), context);
       if (!SqlTypeUtil.isBoolean(condition.getType())) {
@@ -843,11 +844,22 @@ public RexNode visitCase(Case node, CalcitePlanContext context) {
                 "Condition expected a boolean type, but got %s", condition.getType()));
       }
       caseOperands.add(condition);
-      caseOperands.add(analyze(when.getResult(), context));
+      RexNode result = analyze(when.getResult(), context);
+      caseOperands.add(result);
+      resultTypes.add(result.getType());
     }
     RexNode elseExpr =
         node.getElseClause().map(e -> analyze(e, context)).orElse(context.relBuilder.literal(null));
     caseOperands.add(elseExpr);
+    resultTypes.add(elseExpr.getType());
+
+    // Pre-validate the THEN/ELSE result types so an unsupertyped mix surfaces as a clean
+    // 400 here instead of an opaque NPE deep in Calcite's makeCall return-type inference.
+    RelDataType commonType = context.rexBuilder.getTypeFactory().leastRestrictive(resultTypes);
+    if (commonType == null) {
+      throw new ExpressionEvaluationException(
+          StringUtils.format("case branches must have a common type, but got %s", resultTypes));
+    }
     return context.rexBuilder.makeCall(SqlStdOperatorTable.CASE, caseOperands);
   }
 
diff --git a/integ-test/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/remote/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionIT.java b/integ-test/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/remote/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionIT.java
index bc9d4388d5..8bba907e2e 100644
--- a/integ-test/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/remote/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionIT.java
+++ b/integ-test/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/calcite/remote/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionIT.java
@@ -537,4 +537,21 @@ public void testNestedCaseAggWithAutoDateHistogram() throws IOException {
         schema("flags", "bigint"));
     verifyNumOfRows(actual2, 32);
   }
+
+  /** Case with no common branch supertype must return a clean 4xx, not a 500. */
+  @Test
+  public void testCaseWithIncompatibleBranchTypesRejectsCleanly() {
+    org.opensearch.client.ResponseException e =
+        org.junit.Assert.assertThrows(
+            org.opensearch.client.ResponseException.class,
+            () ->
+                executeQuery(
+                    String.format(
+                        "source=%s | eval x = case(age > 30, 'old', age > 20, 1 else 0.0) | fields"
+                            + " x",
+                        TEST_INDEX_BANK)));
+    org.junit.Assert.assertTrue(
+        "expected 400 status, got: " + e.getMessage(),
+        e.getMessage().contains("status line [HTTP/1.1 400"));
+  }
 }
diff --git a/ppl/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/ppl/calcite/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionTest.java b/ppl/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/ppl/calcite/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionTest.java
index 5cc257b0b0..2788f7a9cf 100644
--- a/ppl/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/ppl/calcite/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionTest.java
+++ b/ppl/src/test/java/org/opensearch/sql/ppl/calcite/CalcitePPLCaseFunctionTest.java
@@ -5,9 +5,13 @@
 
 package org.opensearch.sql.ppl.calcite;
 
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertThrows;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
 import org.apache.calcite.rel.RelNode;
 import org.apache.calcite.test.CalciteAssert;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.opensearch.sql.exception.ExpressionEvaluationException;
 
 public class CalcitePPLCaseFunctionTest extends CalcitePPLAbstractTest {
 
@@ -101,4 +105,16 @@ public void testCaseWhenInSubquery() {
             + "FROM `scott`.`EMP`)";
     verifyPPLToSparkSQL(root, expectedSparkSql);
   }
+
+  /** Case branches with no common supertype must be rejected cleanly, not NPE. */
+  @Test
+  public void testCaseWithIncompatibleBranchTypesRejectsCleanly() {
+    String ppl =
+        "source=EMP | eval x = case(DEPTNO > 20, 'big'," + " DEPTNO > 10, 1 else 0.0) | fields x";
+    ExpressionEvaluationException e =
+        assertThrows(ExpressionEvaluationException.class, () -> getRelNode(ppl));
+    assertTrue(
+        "expected message to list incompatible types, got: " + e.getMessage(),
+        e.getMessage().contains("case branches must have a common type"));
+  }
 }