solving java.lang.ClassFormatError: Field "has inconsistent hierarchy" in class

[hiwa]

One probable cause is that your compiler version and JRE version that
Tomcat uses are different. For example, 1.5 vs. 1.4.

 

[Ryan Stewart]

One probable cause is that your compiler version and JRE version that
Tomcat uses are different. For example, 1.5 vs. 1.4.

You would get an UnsupportedClassVersionError for that. Besides which, the
stack trace posted is from Tomcat 5.5.4 which runs on Java 1.5, so Java
version isn't likely to be the problem. Unless someone is trying to run
Tomcat 5.5.4 on Java 1.4. There's no telling what that would do.