Liferay 4.3.4 ClassCastException during startup

com.liferay.portal.model.impl.PortletImpl.java

/**
* Checks whether this portlet is equal to the specified object.
*
* @param obj the object to compare this portlet against
* @return true if the portlet is equal to the specified object
*/
public boolean equals(Object obj) {

/****************** ********************/
/* WebSphere calls equals method while retreiving request attributes. This call throws
* ClassCastException. To avoid this following condition is added to check if the argument
* object is of type Portlet
*/
if(obj instanceof Portlet){
Portlet portlet = (Portlet)obj;

return getPortletId().equals(portlet.getPortletId());
}else{
return false;
}
/****************** ********************/
}