diff --git a/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/main/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperations.java b/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/main/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperations.java
index 1b3c392c..7021202b 100644
--- a/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/main/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperations.java
+++ b/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/main/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperations.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package ai.docling.serve.client.operations;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 
 import ai.docling.serve.api.DoclingServeTaskApi;
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ public TaskOperations(HttpOperations httpOperations) {
    *                unique task identifier and optional wait time for polling.
    *                Must not be null.
    * @return a {@link TaskStatusPollResponse} containing the current status of
-   *     the task, its position in the queue, and any associated metadata.
+   *         the task, its position in the queue, and any associated metadata.
    * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the {@code request} is null.
    */
   public TaskStatusPollResponse pollTaskStatus(TaskStatusPollRequest request) {
@@ -44,9 +45,7 @@ public TaskStatusPollResponse pollTaskStatus(TaskStatusPollRequest request) {
 
     return this.httpOperations.executeGet(createRequestContext(
         "/v1/status/poll/%s?wait=%d".formatted(
-            request.getTaskId(),
-            request.getWaitTime().toSeconds()),
-        TaskStatusPollResponse.class)
+            request.getTaskId(), request.getWaitTime().toSeconds()), TaskStatusPollResponse.class)
     );
   }
 
@@ -58,7 +57,7 @@ public TaskStatusPollResponse pollTaskStatus(TaskStatusPollRequest request) {
    * @param request an instance of {@link TaskResultRequest} containing the unique task
    *                identifier. Must not be null.
    * @return a {@link ConvertDocumentResponse} containing details about the converted
-   *     document, processing time, status, and any associated errors or metadata.
+   *         document, processing time, status, and any associated errors or metadata.
    * @throws IllegalArgumentException if {@code request} is null.
    */
   public ConvertDocumentResponse convertTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
@@ -69,9 +68,9 @@ public ConvertDocumentResponse convertTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
       case HttpOperations.CONTENT_TYPE_JSON -> {
         try (var is = response.getBody()) {
           return httpOperations
-              .readValue(new String(is.readAllBytes(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
-                  , ConvertDocumentResponse.class);
-        } catch (IOException e) {
+              .readValue(new String(is.readAllBytes(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8), ConvertDocumentResponse.class);
+        }
+        catch (IOException e) {
           throw new DoclingServeClientException(e);
         }
       }
@@ -82,7 +81,10 @@ public ConvertDocumentResponse convertTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
             .inputStream(response.getBody())
             .build();
       }
-      default -> throw new DoclingServeClientException(null, "Invalid Content-Type in Task API response");
+      default -> {
+        closeQuietly(response.getBody());
+        throw new DoclingServeClientException(null, "Invalid Content-Type in Task API response");
+      }
     }
   }
 
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ public ConvertDocumentResponse convertTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
    * @param request an instance of {@link TaskResultRequest} containing the unique task
    *                identifier. Must not be null.
    * @return a {@link ChunkDocumentResponse} containing details about the chunks,
-   *     documents, processing time, and any associated metadata.
+   *         documents, processing time, and any associated metadata.
    * @throws IllegalArgumentException if {@code request} is null.
    */
   public ChunkDocumentResponse chunkTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
@@ -104,6 +106,15 @@ public ChunkDocumentResponse chunkTaskResult(TaskResultRequest request) {
     return this.httpOperations.executeGet(createRequestContext("/v1/result/%s".formatted(request.getTaskId()), ChunkDocumentResponse.class));
   }
 
+  private static void closeQuietly(InputStream inputStream) {
+    try {
+      inputStream.close();
+    }
+    catch (IOException ignored) {
+      // the Content-Type error is the failure worth reporting
+    }
+  }
+
   private <O> RequestContext<Object, O> createRequestContext(String uri, Class<O> responseType) {
     return RequestContext.<Object, O>builder()
         .responseType(responseType)
diff --git a/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/test/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperationsTests.java b/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/test/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperationsTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..91cce7a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docling-serve/docling-serve-client/src/test/java/ai/docling/serve/client/operations/TaskOperationsTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+package ai.docling.serve.client.operations;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.util.Optional;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import ai.docling.serve.api.task.request.TaskResultRequest;
+import ai.docling.serve.client.DoclingServeClientException;
+
+class TaskOperationsTests {
+  @Test
+  void convertTaskResultClosesBodyOnUnexpectedContentType() {
+    var closed = new AtomicBoolean();
+    var body = new ByteArrayInputStream(new byte[]{
+        1,
+        2,
+        3
+    }) {
+      @Override
+      public void close() {
+        closed.set(true);
+      }
+    };
+    var taskOperations = new TaskOperations(new StubHttpOperations(body, "text/html"));
+    var request = TaskResultRequest.builder().taskId("task-1").build();
+
+    assertThatThrownBy(() -> taskOperations.convertTaskResult(request))
+        .isInstanceOf(DoclingServeClientException.class)
+        .hasMessageContaining("Invalid Content-Type");
+    assertThat(closed).isTrue();
+  }
+
+  private static final class StubHttpOperations extends HttpOperations {
+    private final InputStream body;
+    private final String contentType;
+
+    StubHttpOperations(InputStream body, String contentType) {
+      this.body = body;
+      this.contentType = contentType;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected <I> StreamResponse executeGetWithStreamResponse(RequestContext<I, StreamResponse> requestContext) {
+      return StreamResponse.builder()
+          .body(body)
+          .headers(name -> CONTENT_TYPE_HEADER.equals(name) ? Optional.of(contentType) : Optional.empty())
+          .build();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected <I, O> O executeGet(RequestContext<I, O> requestContext) {
+      throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected <I, O> O executePost(RequestContext<I, O> requestContext) {
+      throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected <I> StreamResponse executePostWithStreamResponse(RequestContext<I, StreamResponse> requestContext) {
+      throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected <T> T readValue(String json, Class<T> valueType) {
+      throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+  }
+}