Does membership of a charitable organization render a person incompetent to witness a will?

The weight of authority supports our view that a bequest to a beneficiary does not fail where one of the subscribing witnesses is not disinterested. In Kennett v. Kidd (1912) 87 Kan. 652, 125 P. 36, a provision in a will giving property to a camp of Modern Woodsmen was not void because the will was witnessed by members of the camp. Membership in a charitable organization has been held not to render a person incompetent to witness a will in which the organization is a named beneficiary, because the member's interest is too indirect to be a disqualifying interest and no exception is made where the property of a charitable corporation will be divided among the members of the corporation on dissolution. (Quinn v. Shields (1883), 62 Iowa 129, 17 N.W.2d 437.) In In re Estate of Jordan (Tex.Civ.App.1975) 519 S.W.2d 902, members of a church which had been named as a beneficiary in a will were competent witnesses to attest the will. The Texas court in Jordan did not apply any specific statute but cited (at p. 907) a general rule that ". . . by the weight of authority, a person who is an officer or otherwise in a religious or charitable institution to be benefited by a will, is a competent witness to attest the will." ¹