i had already overriden hashCode en equals. that was/is not the issue as far as I can conclude. [ an object is equal if it has the same object ID, if no ID is present, values are compared, hashCode accordingly, using apache EqualsBuilder and apache HashCodeBuilder ] the only wat to fix it was to turn of LAZY loading of the related property. putting it on EAGER solves it. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4130027#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...