## names of modules/subs changed for convenience...
  package MySOAP;
  use strict;
  use My::DBIWrapper;

  sub foo
  {
     my $dbh;
     eval {
        $dbh = My::DBIWrapper->connect;

        ...bunch of processing...
     };
     if( my $err = $@ ) {
        eval{ $dbh->disconnect }; ## just make sure
        die $err; ## reraise so SOAP->fault returns true
     }
   }

##</code><code>##

   ## I really didn't want to subclass DBI, so I just
   ## encapsulate a database handle and proxy all
   ## subroutine calls that My::DBIWrapper doesn't
   ## understand via AUTOLOAD. Other subs have been omitted for bravity
   package My::DBIWrapper;
   use strict;
   our( $AUTOLOAD );

   sub connect
   {
       my $class = shift;
       my $self = { dbhandle => undef };
       bless $self, $class;

       $self->dbhandle( DBI->connect( .... ) );
       return $self;
   }

   sub AUTOLOAD
   {
      ( my $subname = $AUTOLOAD ) =~ s/^.*:://;

      if( eval{ $_[0]->dbhandle && $_[0]->dbhandle->can( $subname ) ) {
         eval "sub $subname { shift->dbhandle->$subname(\@_) }";
         die $@ if $@;
         goto &$AUTOLOAD;
      }

      Carp::croak( "Undefined subroutine $AUTOLOAD called" );
   }

   sub DESTROY
   {
       my $self = shift;
 
       my $dbh = $self->dbhandle;
       if( $dbh ) {
           eval{ $dbh->disconnect };
       }
   }

   1;

##</code><code>##

 1:  package Foo;
 2:  sub DESTROY
 3:  {
 4:     $@ = '';
 5:     ## local $@ = '';  <-- this will work
 6:  }
 7:
 8:  package main;
 9:  eval {
10:     my $foo = bless {}, 'Foo';
11:     die;
12:  };
13:  if( $@ ) {
14:     die $@;
15:  }

##</code><code>##

   ## with local $@
   me@myhost> perl ~/test.pl; echo $?
   Died at /home/me/test.pl line 14
   255

   ## without local $@
   me@myhost> perl ~/test.pl; echo $?
   0