diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/AbstractOptionCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/AbstractOptionCheck.java
index 2b8b6d862..aef0f221b 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/AbstractOptionCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/AbstractOptionCheck.java
@@ -30,8 +30,13 @@ public abstract class AbstractOptionCheck
     extends Check
 {
     /** the policy to enforce */
-    protected AbstractOption mOption = null;
+    private AbstractOption mOption;
 
+    public AbstractOptionCheck(AbstractOption aDefault)
+    {
+        mOption = aDefault;
+    }
+    
     /**
      * Set the option to enforce.
      * @param aOption string to decode option from
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/EmptyBlockCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/EmptyBlockCheck.java
index 758ec888b..c6499f8cc 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/EmptyBlockCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/EmptyBlockCheck.java
@@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.TokenTypes;
  */
 public class EmptyBlockCheck extends AbstractOptionCheck
 {
+    public EmptyBlockCheck()
+    {
+        super(BlockOption.STMT);
+    }
+    
     /** @see com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Check */
     public int[] getDefaultTokens()
     {
@@ -52,7 +57,7 @@ public class EmptyBlockCheck extends AbstractOptionCheck
     {
         final DetailAST slistAST = aAST.findFirstToken(TokenTypes.SLIST);
         if (slistAST != null) {
-            if (mOption == BlockOption.STMT) {
+            if (getAbstractOption() == BlockOption.STMT) {
                 if (slistAST.getChildCount() <= 1) {
                     log(slistAST.getLineNo(),
                         slistAST.getColumnNo(),
@@ -60,7 +65,7 @@ public class EmptyBlockCheck extends AbstractOptionCheck
                         aAST.getText());
                 }
             }
-            else if (mOption == BlockOption.TEXT) {
+            else if (getAbstractOption() == BlockOption.TEXT) {
                 if (!hasText(slistAST)) {
                     log(slistAST.getLineNo(),
                         slistAST.getColumnNo(),
@@ -71,6 +76,10 @@ public class EmptyBlockCheck extends AbstractOptionCheck
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @param slistAST a <code>DetailAST</code> value
+     * @return whether the SLIST token contains any text.
+     */
     private boolean hasText(final DetailAST slistAST)
     {
         boolean retVal = false;
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/LeftCurlyCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/LeftCurlyCheck.java
index 36c57bda3..733621e7e 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/LeftCurlyCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/LeftCurlyCheck.java
@@ -27,8 +27,7 @@ public abstract class LeftCurlyCheck
      */  
     public LeftCurlyCheck()
     {
-        super();
-        mOption = LeftCurlyOption.EOL;
+        super(LeftCurlyOption.EOL);
     }
     
     /** @see the hack above */
@@ -62,13 +61,13 @@ public abstract class LeftCurlyCheck
         {
             // ignore
         }
-        else if (mOption == LeftCurlyOption.NL) {
+        else if (getAbstractOption() == LeftCurlyOption.NL) {
             if (!Utils.whitespaceBefore(aBrace.getColumnNo(), braceLine)) {
                 log(aBrace.getLineNo(), aBrace.getColumnNo(),
                     "line.new", "{");
             }
         }
-        else if (mOption == LeftCurlyOption.EOL) {
+        else if (getAbstractOption() == LeftCurlyOption.EOL) {
             if (Utils.whitespaceBefore(aBrace.getColumnNo(), braceLine)
                 && ((prevLineLen + 2) <= mMaxLineLength))
             {
@@ -76,7 +75,7 @@ public abstract class LeftCurlyCheck
                     "line.previous", "{");
             }
         }
-        else if (mOption == LeftCurlyOption.NLOW) {
+        else if (getAbstractOption() == LeftCurlyOption.NLOW) {
             if (aStartToken.getLineNo() == aBrace.getLineNo()) {
                 // all ok as on the same line
             }
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/ParenPadCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/ParenPadCheck.java
index ce1460f21..c674c3e62 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/ParenPadCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/ParenPadCheck.java
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@ public class ParenPadCheck
      */  
     public ParenPadCheck()
     {
-        super();
-        mOption = PadOption.NOSPACE;
+        super(PadOption.NOSPACE);
     }
 
     /** @see com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Check */
@@ -73,12 +72,12 @@ public class ParenPadCheck
         final String line = getLines()[aAST.getLineNo() - 1];
         final int after = aAST.getColumnNo() + 1;
         if (after < line.length()) {
-            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == mOption)
+            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == getAbstractOption())
                 && (Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(after))))
             {
                 log(aAST.getLineNo(), after, "ws.followed", "(");
             }
-            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == mOption)
+            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == getAbstractOption())
                      && !Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(after))
                      && (line.charAt(after) != ')'))
             {
@@ -96,13 +95,13 @@ public class ParenPadCheck
         final String line = getLines()[aAST.getLineNo() - 1];
         final int before = aAST.getColumnNo() - 1;
         if (before >= 0) {
-            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == mOption)
+            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == getAbstractOption())
                 && Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
                 && !Utils.whitespaceBefore(before, line))
             {
                 log(aAST.getLineNo(), before, "ws.preceeded", ")");
             }
-            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == mOption)
+            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == getAbstractOption())
                 && !Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
                 && (line.charAt(before) != '('))
             {
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/RightCurlyCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/RightCurlyCheck.java
index 4690dff7b..d96a95690 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/RightCurlyCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/RightCurlyCheck.java
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@ public class RightCurlyCheck
      */  
     public RightCurlyCheck()
     {
-        super();
-        mOption = RightCurlyOption.SAME;
+        super(RightCurlyOption.SAME);
     }
     
     /** @see com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Check */
@@ -72,13 +71,13 @@ public class RightCurlyCheck
 
         // If have both tokens, perform the check
         if ((rcurly != null) && (nextToken != null)) {
-            if ((mOption == RightCurlyOption.SAME)
+            if ((getAbstractOption() == RightCurlyOption.SAME)
                 && (rcurly.getLineNo() != nextToken.getLineNo()))
             {
                 log(rcurly.getLineNo(), rcurly.getColumnNo(),
                     "line.same", "}");
             }
-            else if ((mOption == RightCurlyOption.ALONE)
+            else if ((getAbstractOption() == RightCurlyOption.ALONE)
                        && (rcurly.getLineNo() == nextToken.getLineNo()))
             {
                 log(rcurly.getLineNo(), rcurly.getColumnNo(),
diff --git a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/EmptyBlockCheckTest.java b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/EmptyBlockCheckTest.java
index 968bbd230..d938cfec7 100644
--- a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/EmptyBlockCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/EmptyBlockCheckTest.java
@@ -19,7 +19,16 @@ public class EmptyBlockCheckTest
         final Checker c = createChecker(checkConfig);
         final String fname = getPath("InputSemantic.java");
         final String[] expected = {
-         };
+            "52:65: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "54:41: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "71:38: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "72:52: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "73:45: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "75:13: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "77:17: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "79:13: Must have at least one statement.",
+            "82:17: Must have at least one statement.",
+        };
         verify(c, fname, expected);
     }
 
@@ -40,7 +49,7 @@ public class EmptyBlockCheckTest
         };
         verify(c, fname, expected);
     }
-    
+
     public void testStatement()
         throws Exception
     {