diff --git a/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/FoundNode.java b/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/FoundNode.java
index c8522c8..eba1441 100644
--- a/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/FoundNode.java
+++ b/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/FoundNode.java
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 	 */
   private static final long serialVersionUID = -637695387934143293L;
 
-  private final Node node;
+  private Node node;
   private final SplitNode parent;
   private final int parentBranch;
 
@@ -55,6 +55,17 @@
   }
 
   /**
+   * Method to set the node where an instance is routed/filtered through the decision tree model for testing and
+   * training. The method is expected to be used when the original FoundNode object had null node property.
+   * This is to add a reference to a newly established node object.
+   * 
+   * @param node  the node reference to be inserted
+   */
+  void setNode(Node node) {
+    this.node = node;
+  }
+
+  /**
    * Method to get the parent of the node where an instance is routed/filtered through the decision tree model for
    * testing and training
    * 
diff --git a/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/ModelAggregatorProcessor.java b/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/ModelAggregatorProcessor.java
index 967682a..b0ce82e 100644
--- a/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/ModelAggregatorProcessor.java
+++ b/samoa-api/src/main/java/org/apache/samoa/learners/classifiers/trees/ModelAggregatorProcessor.java
@@ -417,6 +417,7 @@
 
     if (leafNode == null) {
       leafNode = newLearningNode(this.parallelismHint);
+      foundNode.setNode(leafNode);
       foundNode.getParent().setChild(foundNode.getParentBranch(), leafNode);
       activeLeafNodeCount++;
     }