diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/internal/XDocsPagesTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/internal/XDocsPagesTest.java
index 1bb886c2b..b153f0f7f 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/internal/XDocsPagesTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/internal/XDocsPagesTest.java
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ public class XDocsPagesTest {
 
     private static void validateCheckSection(ModuleFactory moduleFactory, String fileName,
             String sectionName, Node section) throws Exception {
-        Object instance = null;
+        Object instance;
 
         try {
             instance = moduleFactory.createModule(sectionName);