Please Fix this (Respawn at checkpoint failure)

I was fighting Viper Napuatzi in Act 3 Hardcore, and things weren't going my way. I had just broken all of my energy shields and the fight was clearly not getting any better for me. So I pressed escape (Pausing the game) and pressed 'Respawn at checkpoint' This immediately unpaused the game, threw a 'Failed to join instance Because: That character is in a different League. Failed to join any instances.' And my character died immediately afterward. This was not an enjoyable experience. Either I died in the seconds it took for the game to load the respawn after I had clicked it, or it failed to connect entirely.

Please clarify if this is an intended feature.