Could it be that you have declaration order configured in CheckStyle? Take a look at
http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net/config_coding.html#DeclarationOrder
In that link, you will notice that it says …
*According to Code Conventions for the Java Programming Language , the parts of a class or interface declaration should appear in the following order:
Class (static) variables.
First the public class variables,
then the protected,
then package level (no access modifier), and
then the private.
Instance variables.
First the public class variables,
then the protected,
then package level (no access modifier), and
then the private Constructors Methods*