The old code must have been a mistake, because it would have led to a NullPointerException. Eclipse showed me these... Old: if ( sfc != null || sfc.getFeatureCollection().size() > 0 ) { FeatureCollection fc = sfc.getFeatureCollection(); New: if ( sfc != null && sfc.getFeatureCollection().size() > 0 ) { FeatureCollection fc = sfc.getFeatureCollection();