prefooter appearing twice on v3.7.6.

my client is using a child theme and when updating the main theme to 3.7.6 the prefooter is appearing twice. here is the code that is being used in the child theme file “pre-footer.php”

<?php
/**
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Highend
*/
?>
<?php
$button_icon=””;
$button_target=””;
if ( hb_options(‘hb_pre_footer_button_icon’) ) {
$button_icon = ‘<i class=”‘ . hb_options(“hb_pre_footer_button_icon”) . ‘”></i>’;
}

if (hb_options(‘hb_pre_footer_button_target’) == ‘_blank’){
$button_target = ‘ target=”_blank”‘;
}
?>
<!– BEGIN #pre-footer-area –>
<div id=”pre-footer-area”>
<div class=”container”>
<span class=”pre-footer-text”><?php echo hb_options(‘hb_pre_footer_text’); ?></span>
<br>
<?php if (hb_options(‘hb_pre_footer_button_text’)) { ?>“<?php echo $button_target; ?> class=”hb-button hb-large-button”><?php echo $button_icon; echo hb_options(‘hb_pre_footer_button_text’); ?><?php } ?>

</div>
</div>
<!– END #pre-footer-area –>