I actually tried goto first, since it sounded like the right tool for the job, but couldn't get it to work at all. It gave me bizarre errors that I couldn't track down.

I tried the eval already too, but of course it just gives the same message. I think I could maybe get it to work if I did careful editing of $@, since I think croak is looking at it and seeing a line number already there and that's why it fails.

The parent class is a CPAN module while I'd prefer not to mess with, except as a last resort.

I'll try the eval or goto again. Maybe I can get it to work if I persevere. Thanks for the suggestions.