tomcat getting shut down suddenly....

[Nitin]

hi all,
anybody knows what the foll. errror msg in tomcat means?
this msg was logged in the error.log file in the bin folder of tomcat.
i'm using tomcat 3.3.

JNI panic: native code passed a wrong class to a static method
        at java.lang.Class.getMethods0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.getMethods(Class.java:717)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.qlog.Logger.printThrowable(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.qlog.Logger.throwableToString(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.modules.generators.ExceptionHandler.doService(Unknown 
Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.service(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.modules.generators.ErrorHandler.handleErrorImpl(Unknown 
Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.modules.generators.ErrorHandler.handleError(Unknown 
Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.handleError(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.internalService(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.service(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.modules.server.Ajp12Interceptor.processConnection(Unknown 
Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(Unknown 
Source)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:479)


any pointers , suggestions are highly appreciated
thanx & regards
Nitin