diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/VisibilityModifierCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/VisibilityModifierCheck.java
index 63bb344b5..ec323eafd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/VisibilityModifierCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/VisibilityModifierCheck.java
@@ -733,10 +733,9 @@ public class VisibilityModifierCheck
      * @return short name of class.
      */
     private static String getClassShortName(String canonicalClassName) {
-        final String shortClassName = canonicalClassName
+        return canonicalClassName
                 .substring(canonicalClassName.lastIndexOf('.') + 1,
                 canonicalClassName.length());
-        return shortClassName;
     }
 
     /**