Does anyone recognise this error?

Question

java.rmi.ServerError: Error occurred in server thread; nested exception is:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unterminated quote
<<no stack trace available>>
I have a server implementation with two methods.
When trying to use it across RMI, one method works, one doesn't (see error message above).
If I create a local instance of my implementation, both methods work ok.
Any ideas why this might be, or tips on how to debug this?
I've tried putting println statements and catch blocks with stack traces into the server impl. It shows the method. The first prints out but nothing else. This is the method
    public List getFunctions(Date d) throws SQLException
        // only this line prints out when invoked over RMI
        System.out.println("getFunctions() for date:"+d);       
        List functions = null;
        try
            functions = FunctionFactory.getFunctions(d);         
        catch(SQLException ex)
            ex.printStackTrace();
            throw ex;
        catch(Exception ex)
            ex.printStackTrace();           
        System.out.println("Returning list of functions: "+functions);
        return functions;               

Answer 1

That explains why I wasn't catching it.
Its was an error (Throwable) rather than an Exception.
Solved now. It wasn't RMI causing the problem after all but related to differences between SimpleDateFormat implementation in 1.3 and 1.4.
My code was wrong but it worked in 1.3. In 1.4 it didn't.
Thanks for the debugging tip.