diff --git a/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/tools/PDFText2HTML.java b/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/tools/PDFText2HTML.java
index 31024fff663..06f247ed205 100644
--- a/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/tools/PDFText2HTML.java
+++ b/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/tools/PDFText2HTML.java
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ private int closeUntil(StringBuilder tagsBuilder, String endTag)
             {
                 String tag = stateList.get(i);
                 tagsBuilder.append(closeTag(tag));
-                if (endTag != null && tag.equals(endTag))
+                if (tag.equals(endTag))
                 {
                     return i;
                 }