diff --git a/components/com_content/views/categories/tmpl/default_items.php b/components/com_content/views/categories/tmpl/default_items.php
index 4326635c1c861..18310efcd6490 100644
--- a/components/com_content/views/categories/tmpl/default_items.php
+++ b/components/com_content/views/categories/tmpl/default_items.php
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 JHtml::_('bootstrap.tooltip');
 
 $class = ' class="first"';
-$lang  = JFactory::getLanguage();
 
 if ($this->maxLevelcat != 0 && count($this->items[$this->parent->id]) > 0) :
 ?>