diff --git a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_coref.py b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_coref.py
index 7b96c5540..e09d4827d 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_coref.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_coref.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ from spacy.training import Example
 from spacy.lang.en import English
 from spacy.tests.util import make_tempdir
 from spacy.pipeline.coref import DEFAULT_CLUSTERS_PREFIX
+from spacy.ml.models.coref_util import select_non_crossing_spans
 
 # fmt: off
 TRAIN_DATA = [
@@ -142,3 +143,14 @@ def test_overfitting_IO(nlp):
     print(no_batch_deps)
     # assert_equal(batch_deps_1, batch_deps_2)
     # assert_equal(batch_deps_1, no_batch_deps)
+
+def test_crossing_spans():
+    starts = [ 6, 10, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2]
+    ends   = [12, 12, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 5]
+    idxs   = list(range(len(starts)))
+    limit  = 5
+
+    gold = sorted([0 , 1, 2, 4, 6])
+    guess = select_non_crossing_spans(idxs, starts, ends, limit)
+    guess = sorted(guess)
+    assert gold == guess