This is a bit confusing so to go with an example

Query<Order> query = Ebean.createQuery(Order.class);
query.join("details");
query.orderBy("details.product.id");
List<Order> orders = query.findList();

The problem here is that both the 'master' order is fetched along with the 'detail' order details - AND the order by includes a property from order details (details.product.id in this case).

In this case Ebean will automatically ensure the order by includes the order.id BEFORE a order by on any details property.

This is not quite right in 0.9.6... and Ebean will potentially give an error loading the beans.