diff --git a/docs/releasenotes.html b/docs/releasenotes.html
index c83609a6e..3ca80df4a 100644
--- a/docs/releasenotes.html
+++ b/docs/releasenotes.html
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@
           <li class="body">Ignore comments in GenericIllegalRegexp check,
           contributed by Daniel Grenner (request 680988, patch 902109).
 
-          <li class="body">UnnecessaryParentheses check contributed by 
+          <li class="body">UnnecessaryParentheses check contributed by
           Eric Roe (patch 911086, request 634834)</li>
 
           <li class="body">Added ignoreNonLocal property to UnusedParameter
@@ -207,6 +207,9 @@
         <li class="body">ExplicitInitialization shouldn't report about
         explicitly initialized member of interface (bug 909619)</li>
 
+        <li class="body">DesignForExtension fires for private inner
+        classes (bug 884035).</li>
+
         <li class="body">Entity resolver for configuration files now handles
         all previous versions of the configuration DTD locally, without
         accessing the internet (bug 909987).</li>
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/DesignForExtensionCheck.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/DesignForExtensionCheck.java
index 51ef96844..5e752e880 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/DesignForExtensionCheck.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/design/DesignForExtensionCheck.java
@@ -18,10 +18,7 @@
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.design;
 
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.Check;
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.TokenTypes;
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.DetailAST;
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.ScopeUtils;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.*;
 
 /**
  * Checks that classes are designed for inheritance.
@@ -53,7 +50,7 @@ import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.ScopeUtils;
  * </p>
  *
  * @author lkuehne
- * @version $Revision: 1.4 $
+ * @version $Revision: 1.5 $
  */
 public class DesignForExtensionCheck extends Check
 {
@@ -81,6 +78,13 @@ public class DesignForExtensionCheck extends Check
             return;
         }
 
+        // method is ok if containing class is not visible in API and
+        // cannot be extended by 3rd parties (bug #884035)
+        if (!ScopeUtils.getSurroundingScope(aAST).isIn(Scope.PROTECTED))
+        {
+            return;
+        }
+
         // method is ok if it is implementation can verified to be empty
         // Note: native methods don't have impl in java code, so
         // implementation can be null even if method not abstract
diff --git a/src/testinputs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/InputDesignForExtension.java b/src/testinputs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/InputDesignForExtension.java
index e27032551..ca75f81aa 100644
--- a/src/testinputs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/InputDesignForExtension.java
+++ b/src/testinputs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/InputDesignForExtension.java
@@ -49,7 +49,24 @@ public class InputDesignForExtension
     }
 
     // has a potentially complex implementation in native code.
-    // We can't check that, so to be safe DesignForExtension requirves
+    // We can't check that, so to be safe DesignForExtension requires
     // native methods to also be final
     public native void aNativeMethod();
+
+    // tries to trigger bug #884035
+    // MyComparator is a private class, so there cannot be subclasses
+    // and it should not be neccessary to declare compare() as final
+    private class MyComparator implements java.util.Comparator
+    {
+        public int compare(Object o1, Object o2)
+        {
+            // some complex stuff that would normally trigger an error report
+            if (o1.hashCode() > o2.hashCode()) {
+                return -1;
+            }
+            else {
+                return 1;
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }