This got fixed in tomcat5.5 and tomcat6. from
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-java/trunk/tomcat5.5/debian/tomcat5.5.init?op=file&rev=0&sc=0:
# Clean up and set permissions on required files
find "$CATALINA_BASE"/temp/ -mindepth 1 -exec rm -fr {}
--
David Pashley
david at davidpashley.com
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.