diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.r5/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/r5/utils/client/network/ByteUtils.java b/org.hl7.fhir.r5/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/r5/utils/client/network/ByteUtils.java
index 44199bf67..bf66c5622 100644
--- a/org.hl7.fhir.r5/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/r5/utils/client/network/ByteUtils.java
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.r5/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/r5/utils/client/network/ByteUtils.java
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ public class ByteUtils {
   public static <T extends Resource> byte[] resourceToByteArray(T resource, boolean pretty, boolean isJson, boolean noXhtml) {
     ByteArrayOutputStream baos = null;
     byte[] byteArray = null;
+    baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     try {
-      baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
       IParser parser = null;
       if (isJson) {
         parser = new JsonParser();
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0071f570c..1b15f2d1f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
         <commons_io_version>2.17.0</commons_io_version>
         <guava_version>32.0.1-jre</guava_version>
         <hapi_fhir_version>6.4.1</hapi_fhir_version>
-        <validator_test_case_version>1.5.25</validator_test_case_version>
+        <validator_test_case_version>1.5.26-SNAPSHOT</validator_test_case_version>
         <jackson_version>2.17.0</jackson_version>
         <junit_jupiter_version>5.9.2</junit_jupiter_version>
         <junit_platform_launcher_version>1.8.2</junit_platform_launcher_version>