A company salty over being left with almost $5 million in unpurchased ice melt for roads can’t sue a cooperative of local government bodies in Morris County it contracted with for buying only a fraction of its product.

A split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a New Jersey district judge’s ruling that the Morris County Cooperative Pricing Council, which awards and executes contracts for products and services so its members can obtain volume discount, was not bound to make the purchases by a contract with plaintiff Mid-American Salt.