diff --git a/src/utils/syntax-error-ex.js b/src/utils/syntax-error-ex.js
index ff73df4..070da99 100644
--- a/src/utils/syntax-error-ex.js
+++ b/src/utils/syntax-error-ex.js
@@ -11,31 +11,25 @@ Definition of the SyntaxErrorEx class.
   Represents a SyntaxError exception with line and column info.
   Collect syntax error information from the provided exception object. The
   JavaScript `SyntaxError` exception isn't interpreted uniformly across environ-
-  ments, so we first check for a .lineNumber and .columnNumber and, if that's
-  not present, fall back to the JSONLint library, which provides that info.
+  ments, so we reparse on error to grab the line and column.
   See: http://stackoverflow.com/q/13323356
   @class SyntaxErrorEx
   */
 
-  module.exports = function SyntaxErrorEx( ex, rawData ) {
+  function SyntaxErrorEx( ex, rawData ) {
 
     var lineNum = null, colNum = null;
-    if( ex.lineNumber !== undefined && ex.lineNumber !== null ) {
-      lineNum = ex.lineNumber;
-    }
-    if( ex.columnNumber !== undefined && ex.columnNumber !== null ) {
-      colNum = ex.columnNumber;
-    }
-    if( lineNum === null || colNum === null ) {
-      var JSONLint = require('json-lint'); // TODO: json-lint or is-my-json-valid?
-      var lint = JSONLint( rawData, { comments: false } );
-      if( lineNum === null ) lineNum = (lint.error ? lint.line : '???');
-      if( colNum === null ) colNum = (lint.error ? lint.character : '???');
-    }
-    this.line = lineNum;
-    this.col = colNum;
+    var JSONLint = require('json-lint');
+    var lint = JSONLint( rawData, { comments: false } );
+    this.line = (lint.error ? lint.line : '???');
+    this.col =  (lint.error ? lint.character : '???');
 
+  }
+
+  SyntaxErrorEx.is = function( ex ) {
+    return ex instanceof SyntaxError;
   };
 
+  module.exports = SyntaxErrorEx;
 
 }());