diff --git a/workflow/engine/lib/Xml/DOMDocumentExtended.php b/workflow/engine/lib/Xml/DOMDocumentExtended.php
index cc1e4085e..30c14ea6c 100644
--- a/workflow/engine/lib/Xml/DOMDocumentExtended.php
+++ b/workflow/engine/lib/Xml/DOMDocumentExtended.php
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ class Xml_DOMDocumentExtended extends DOMDocument
                     }
                 }
                 $mValue = $this->toArray($oChildNode);
-                $sKey   = ($oChildNode->nodeName{0} == '#') ? 0 : $oChildNode->nodeName;
+                $sKey   = ($oChildNode->nodeName[0] == '#') ? 0 : $oChildNode->nodeName;
                 $mValue = is_array($mValue) ? $mValue[$oChildNode->nodeName] : $mValue;
                 // how many of thse child nodes do we have?
                 if ($iChildCount > 1) {  // more than 1 child - make numeric array