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CITY OF BARLING v. FORT CHAFFEE REDEVELOPMENT12/6/2001
its municipal structures to its own plan, so long as the state does not interfere with the exercise of jurisdiction within the federal area by the United States. Kentucky's consent to this acquisition gave the United States power to exercise exclusive jurisdiction within the area. A change of municipal boundaries did not interfere in the least with the jurisdiction of the United States within the area or with its use or disposition of the property. The fiction of a state within a state can have no validity to prevent the state from exercising its power over the federal area within its boundaries, so long as there is no interference with the jurisdiction asserted by the Federal Government. The sovereign rights in this dual relationship are not antagonistic. Accommodation and cooperation are their aim. It is friction, not fiction, to which we must give heed.
Howard, 344 U.S. at 626-27 (emphasis added).
[14, 15] Thus, a municipality, such as Barling, may annex property within a federal enclave so long as it does nothing that will interfere with the jurisdiction of the federal government. Despite the FCRA's argument that Barling's intention to provide fire and police protection to the Fort Chaffee land amounted to an interference with the federal government's authority to provide such services, we agree with the trial court's conclusion that "the mere recitation in the annexation ordinances that the services will be provided, even though Barling at the time of the annexation had no authority to provide such services if the federal government objected, does not make the ordinances void."
Because Barling had the ability to annex the federal land, we reject FCRA's argument that the annexations were void ab initio. We therefore conclude that FCRA's challenge to the elections, some nine, eighteen, and nineteen years after the annexations were accomplished, were time-barred under § 14-40-303. See City of Springdale v. Incorporated Town of Bethel Heights, 311 Ark. 497, 845 S.W.2d 1 (1993); Duennenberg v. City of Barling, 309 Ark. 541, 832 S.W.2d 237 (1992); Williams v. Harmon, 67 Ark. App. 281,
999 S.W.2d 206 (1999) (noting Bethel Heights and Duennenberg as holding that the thirty-day limitations period extends to challenges to procedures outlined in subchapter of Arkansas Code on annexations, including those procedures not enumerated in § 14-40-302). Thus, the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment on the question of FCRA's failure to bring its annexation challenge within thirty days.
[17, 18] FCRA argues also that Barling's annexation ordinances, as placed before its electors, constituted a constructive fraud upon the public, thus creating an issue capable of supporting a collateral attack. However, FCRA did not obtain a ruling on this issue from the trial court. It is well settled that to preserve arguments for appeal, even constitutional ones, the appellant must obtain a ruling below. Barclay v. First Paris Holding Co., 344 Ark. 711, 42 S.W.3d 496 (2001) (citing Wilson v. Neal, 332 Ark. 148, 964 S.W.2d 199 (1998)). The same is true of FCRA's final argument, that Barling was bound to proceed with its annexation in a general election, rather than a special election such as that used in 1981 and 1991, because the law in existence at the time of the cession of jurisdiction in 1941. The trial court did not rule on these issues, and, although we believe there is no merit to FCRA's arguments, we decline to further address them here.
For the foregoing reasons, the trial court is affirmed on direct appeal and on cross-appeal.
Imber, J., concurs in part and dissents in part.
ANNABELLE CLINTON IMBER, Justice, concurri
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