diff --git a/findbugs/src/java/edu/umd/cs/findbugs/ba/Hierarchy.java b/findbugs/src/java/edu/umd/cs/findbugs/ba/Hierarchy.java
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/findbugs/src/java/edu/umd/cs/findbugs/ba/Hierarchy.java
+++ b/findbugs/src/java/edu/umd/cs/findbugs/ba/Hierarchy.java
@@ -806,7 +806,7 @@ public class Hierarchy {
 				classDefiningField = classDefiningField.getSuperClass();
 			}
 
-		if (classDefiningField == null)
+		if (classDefiningField == null || field == null)
 			return null;
 		else {
 			String realClassName = classDefiningField.getClassName();
in some very rare cases, field could in fact be null here

git-svn-id: <URL>