diff --git a/pkg/arvo/lib/ethio.hoon b/pkg/arvo/lib/ethio.hoon
index fb919460fa..cfecb50ccb 100644
--- a/pkg/arvo/lib/ethio.hoon
+++ b/pkg/arvo/lib/ethio.hoon
@@ -108,16 +108,25 @@
   ++  parse-one-response
     |=  =json
     ^-  (unit response:rpc)
-    =/  res=(unit [@t ^json])
+    ?.  &(?=([%o *] json) (~(has by p.json) 'error'))
+      =/  res=(unit [@t ^json])
+        %.  json
+        =,  dejs-soft:format
+        (ot id+so result+some ~)
+      ?~  res  ~
+      `[%result u.res]
+    ~|  parse-one-response=json
+    =/  error=(unit [id=@t ^json code=@ta mssg=@t])
       %.  json
       =,  dejs-soft:format
-      (ot id+so result+some ~)
-    ?^  res  `[%result u.res]
-    ~|  parse-one-response=json
-    :+  ~  %error  %-  need
-    %.  json
-    =,  dejs-soft:format
-    (ot id+so error+(ot code+no message+so ~) ~)
+      ::  A 'result' member is present in the error
+      ::  response when using ganache, even though
+      ::  that goes against the JSON-RPC spec
+      ::
+      (ot id+so result+some error+(ot code+no message+so ~) ~)
+    ?~  error  ~
+    =*  err  u.error
+    `[%error id.err code.err mssg.err]
   --
 ::
 ::  +read-contract: calls a read function on a contract, produces result hex