Notice to all legal representatives is mandatory before assessing a deceased estate; defective service makes the assessment void.

Assessment proceedings against a deceased person's estate are void when notice is issued only to one legal representative and not to all legal representatives, because each representative must be brought on record and served before the assessment is completed. A defect at the threshold is not a mere irregularity that can be cured by remand; it goes to the validity of the proceedings themselves. The proper consequence is annulment of the assessment, not setting it aside for fresh action.

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Issues: Whether an assessment made on the estate of a deceased person was invalid and liable to be annulled where notice was issued only to one of the legal representatives and not to all of them, and whether the assessment could be merely set aside for fresh proceedings.

Analysis: The liability of the legal representatives attached to all of them, and proceedings for assessment required notice to each legal representative. The analogy of a defect arising after valid initiation was rejected because the defect here occurred at the threshold itself: no notice under the relevant provisions was issued to all the legal representatives before proceeding with the gift-tax assessment. The failure to serve all legal representatives rendered the notice and the consequential assessment void, not merely irregular. The principle that all legal representatives must be brought on record and served before completion of assessment was held applicable.

Conclusion: The assessment was illegal and void for want of notice to all the legal representatives, and the order should have been annulled rather than set aside for fresh assessment.

Final Conclusion: The assessee succeeded because the assessment proceedings against the deceased's estate were invalid from the inception due to defective service on only one legal representative.

Ratio Decidendi: Where assessment proceedings against a deceased person's estate are initiated without notice to all legal representatives, the resultant assessment is void and must be annulled.

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