Cannot read property '$$phase' of null - AngularJS

Question

for some reason I get this error while splicing an object from an array that lives in the $scope:

Cannot read property '$$phase' of null

here's the code:

$scope.deleteThis = function (index) {
            $scope.$parent.accounts.splice(index, 1);
        }

I call this function on ng-click.

Note: This doesn't break anything ui wise or functionality wise, just appears in the console.

Thanks!