NullPointerException when extending entity EJB class

Whenever an Entity EJB is extended from a class other than Object it generates a NullPointerException upon deployment.

Example:

@Entity
@Table(name = "PERSON")
public class Person extends EntityBeanAbstract implements Serializable {

protected Integer id;
protected String name;

@Id(generate = GeneratorType.AUTO)
public Integer getId()

{ return id; }

public void setId(Integer id)

{ this.id = id; }

@Column(name = "NAME", nullable = false, length = 100)
public String getName()

{ return name; }

public void setName(String name)

{ this.name = name; }

}

public abstract class EntityBeanAbstract {

public boolean equals(Object object)

{ ... }

}

16:44:02,438 ERROR [Ejb3Module] Starting failed jboss.j2ee:service=EJB3,module=entities.ejb3
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.getDeclaredEntityProperties(EntityToHibernateXml.java:400)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.getAnnotatedProperty(EntityToHibernateXml.java:316)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.getAnnotatedProperty(EntityToHibernateXml.java:327)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.handleBasicClass(EntityToHibernateXml.java:1839)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.handleClass(EntityToHibernateXml.java:1457)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.EntityToHibernateXml.convert(EntityToHibernateXml.java:161)
at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.HibernateSessionFactory.createSessionFactory(HibernateSessionFactory.java:144)
at org.jboss.ejb3.Ejb3Module.createHibernateSessionFactory(Ejb3Module.java:213)
at org.jboss.ejb3.Ejb3Module.startService(Ejb3Module.java:225)
...

This happens even if the parent class has no methods.