diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 8f86bd86d..d874d104c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1079,7 +1079,6 @@
                 <totalLineRate>95</totalLineRate>
                 <regexes>
                   <regex><pattern>.*.Checker</pattern><branchRate>80</branchRate><lineRate>85</lineRate></regex>
-                  <regex><pattern>.*.TreeWalker</pattern><branchRate>97</branchRate><lineRate>94</lineRate></regex>
 
                   <regex><pattern>.*.checks.AbstractOptionCheck</pattern><branchRate>100</branchRate><lineRate>80</lineRate></regex>
                   <regex><pattern>.*.checks.AbstractTypeAwareCheck</pattern><branchRate>87</branchRate><lineRate>84</lineRate></regex>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalker.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalker.java
index 00f7a758a..a30c0bdb8 100755
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalker.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalker.java
@@ -210,9 +210,7 @@ public final class TreeWalker
             LOG.error(exceptionMsg);
             final RecognitionException re = tre.recog;
             String message = "TokenStreamRecognitionException occured";
-            if (re != null) {
-                message = re.getMessage();
-            }
+            message = re.getMessage();
             getMessageCollector().add(createLocalizedMessage(message));
         }
         // RecognitionException and any other (need to check if needed)
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalkerTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalkerTest.java
index c6a0fc1e1..c43b976ec 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalkerTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/TreeWalkerTest.java
@@ -268,4 +268,36 @@ public class TreeWalkerTest extends BaseCheckTestSupport {
         lines.add(" class a {} ");
         treeWalker.processFiltered(file, lines);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testProcessWithParserTrowable() throws Exception {
+        final TreeWalker treeWalker = new TreeWalker();
+        treeWalker.configure(createCheckConfig(TypeNameCheck.class));
+        PackageObjectFactory factory = new PackageObjectFactory(
+                new HashSet<String>(), Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
+        treeWalker.setModuleFactory(factory);
+        treeWalker.setCacheFile(temporaryFolder.newFile().getPath());
+        treeWalker.setupChild(createCheckConfig(TypeNameCheck.class));
+        final File file = temporaryFolder.newFile("file.java");
+        ArrayList<String> lines = new ArrayList<>();
+        lines.add(" classD a {} ");
+
+        treeWalker.processFiltered(file, lines);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testProcessWithRecognitionException() throws Exception {
+        final TreeWalker treeWalker = new TreeWalker();
+        treeWalker.configure(createCheckConfig(TypeNameCheck.class));
+        PackageObjectFactory factory = new PackageObjectFactory(
+                new HashSet<String>(), Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
+        treeWalker.setModuleFactory(factory);
+        treeWalker.setCacheFile(temporaryFolder.newFile().getPath());
+        treeWalker.setupChild(createCheckConfig(TypeNameCheck.class));
+        final File file = temporaryFolder.newFile("file.java");
+        ArrayList<String> lines = new ArrayList<>();
+        lines.add(" class a%$# {} ");
+
+        treeWalker.processFiltered(file, lines);
+    }
 }