diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/java/test/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/JavaDataFrameSuite.java b/sql/hive/src/test/java/test/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/JavaDataFrameSuite.java
index c4828c4717643..741a3cd31c603 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/java/test/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/JavaDataFrameSuite.java
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/java/test/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/JavaDataFrameSuite.java
@@ -61,7 +61,9 @@ public void setUp() throws IOException {
   @After
   public void tearDown() throws IOException {
     // Clean up tables.
-    hc.sql("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS window_table");
+    if (hc != null) {
+      hc.sql("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS window_table");
+    }
   }
 
   @Test