this is mach-ii.xml entry that displays the form
++++++++++
                <event-handler event="showApplicationFormPartANew" access="public">
                        <event-arg name="application_id" value="0" />
                        <notify listener="applicationsListener"
method="retrieveApplicationPartA" resultArg="applications" />
                        <view-page name="partAForm" contentArg="content"  />
                        <execute subroutine="pageLayoutWithLeftnav" />
                </event-handler>
+++++++++++

if I remove the execute subroutine line, it works fine.

These are the contents of the subroutine:
+++++++++++++
                <subroutine name="pageLayoutWithLeftnav">
                        <view-page name="layout"  />
                </subroutine>
++++++++++++++

layout: <page-view name="layout" page="/views/layout.cfm" />

layout.cfm contents: <cfoutput>#event.getArg("content")#</cfoutput>