diff --git a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResult.java b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResult.java
index e8d693a4a61..1f5e48ca9f9 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResult.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-base/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResult.java
@@ -30,13 +30,16 @@ import ca.uhn.fhir.model.base.resource.BaseOperationOutcome;
  */
 public class ValidationResult {
     private BaseOperationOutcome myOperationOutcome;
+    private boolean isSuccessful;
 
-    private ValidationResult(BaseOperationOutcome myOperationOutcome) {
+    private ValidationResult(BaseOperationOutcome myOperationOutcome, boolean isSuccessful) {
         this.myOperationOutcome = myOperationOutcome;
+        this.isSuccessful = isSuccessful;
     }
 
     public static ValidationResult valueOf(BaseOperationOutcome myOperationOutcome) {
-        return new ValidationResult(myOperationOutcome);
+        boolean noIssues = myOperationOutcome == null || myOperationOutcome.getIssue().isEmpty();
+        return new ValidationResult(myOperationOutcome, noIssues);
     }
 
     public BaseOperationOutcome getOperationOutcome() {
@@ -47,6 +50,7 @@ public class ValidationResult {
     public String toString() {
         return "ValidationResult{" +
                 "myOperationOutcome=" + myOperationOutcome +
+                ", isSuccessful=" + isSuccessful +
                 ", description='" + toDescription() + '\'' +
                 '}';
     }
@@ -67,6 +71,6 @@ public class ValidationResult {
      * @return true if the validation was successful
      */
     public boolean isSuccessful() {
-        return myOperationOutcome == null || myOperationOutcome.getIssue().isEmpty();
+        return isSuccessful;
     }
 }
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/model/primitive/BaseDateTimeDtTest.java b/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/model/primitive/BaseDateTimeDtTest.java
index d59cc768d1b..ab2b62d4493 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/model/primitive/BaseDateTimeDtTest.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/model/primitive/BaseDateTimeDtTest.java
@@ -1,18 +1,19 @@
 package ca.uhn.fhir.model.primitive;
 
-import static org.junit.Assert.*;
-
-import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
-import java.util.Date;
-import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
-import java.util.TimeZone;
-
+import ca.uhn.fhir.model.api.TemporalPrecisionEnum;
+import ca.uhn.fhir.parser.DataFormatException;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateFormat;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-import ca.uhn.fhir.model.api.TemporalPrecisionEnum;
-import ca.uhn.fhir.parser.DataFormatException;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Calendar;
+import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.TimeZone;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
 
 public class BaseDateTimeDtTest {
 	private SimpleDateFormat myDateInstantParser;
@@ -39,7 +40,7 @@ public class BaseDateTimeDtTest {
 		Date instant = myDateInstantParser.parse("2001-02-03 13:01:02.555");
 		for (FastDateFormat next : BaseDateTimeDt.getFormatters()) {
 			
-			GregorianCalendar cal = new GregorianCalendar(TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST"));
+			Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
 			cal.setTime(instant);
 			String value = next.format(cal);
 			ourLog.info("String: {}", value);
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResultTest.java b/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResultTest.java
index b4f2a2fa503..051bbde3e32 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResultTest.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-structures-dstu/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/validation/ValidationResultTest.java
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package ca.uhn.fhir.validation;
 
 import ca.uhn.fhir.model.base.resource.BaseOperationOutcome.BaseIssue;
 import ca.uhn.fhir.model.dstu.resource.OperationOutcome;
-
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 import java.util.List;
@@ -45,4 +44,17 @@ public class ValidationResultTest {
 
         assertThat("ValidationResult#toString should contain the issue description", result.toString(), containsString(errorMessage));
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+
+    /*
+      Test for https://github.com/jamesagnew/hapi-fhir/issues/51
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void toString_ShouldNotCauseResultToBecomeFailure() {
+        OperationOutcome operationOutcome = new OperationOutcome();
+        ValidationResult result = ValidationResult.valueOf(operationOutcome);
+        assertEquals(true, result.isSuccessful());
+        // need to call toString to make sure any unwanted side effects are generated
+        @SuppressWarnings("UnusedDeclaration") String unused = result.toString();
+        assertEquals(true, result.isSuccessful());
+    }
+}