The following suspicious group of lines is in javadoc TypeMaker, round about line 67. -- Jon if (considerAnnotations && t.isAnnotated()) { return new AnnotatedTypeImpl(env, (com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.AnnotatedType) t); } if (t.isAnnotated()) { Type.AnnotatedType at = (Type.AnnotatedType) t; return new AnnotatedTypeImpl(env, at); }