A client agent application program returned a CMIP error as its response to an indication. In checking CMIP error responses, CMIP services takes several pieces of information into account. One of them is the operation-type for the indication (e.g. m-Get, m-Action, etc). Another is the client agent's capabilities, specifically whether the instance responding had the SUBTREE_MANAGER capability set when it was registered. This error is returned to the agent by CMIP services because CMIP services only allows the given CMIP error to be returned by subtree manager agents. This is because the given error is checked for by CMIP services before the indication is delivered to the client agent application. Except in the case of subtree managers, CMIP services has already verified that the error did not occur. Because the agent is not a subtree manager, the agent should not be allowed to return this error, because it could not have occurred. Had the agent been a subtree manager the error response would have been allowed, because in that case CMIP services could not have verified ahead of time that the error did not occur. It should not be inferred from this discussion that the solution is to make the client agent a subtree manager. Instead, it should be assumed that the client incorrectly detected the error condition signaled by the response, and that the client's response is in error.