I will still Try to defend the argument that `Try` is a better option than just returning `null` or throwing an exception that we assume the author intended, which is not documented.

The `Try` monad itself defines that:
    "only non-fatal exceptions are caught by the combinators on Try (see scala.util.control.NonFatal). Serious system errors, on the other hand, will be thrown."

Assuming the intentions of the original author was to handle the `null` and _bubble_ up any other exception that wasn't caught by the `try-catch` control flow he was actually failing on the first one. To be honest I will bet that most likely the `try-catch` specifically was used to handle the compilation error flags due the usage of reflection. I know I am changing the _public_ API but do think that is for the best. 

Ref:
(NonFatal)[http://www.scala-lang.org/api/2.10.3/index.html#scala.util.control.NonFatal$]
(Try)[http://www.scala-lang.org/api/2.10.3/index.html#scala.util.Try]