An unincorporated association can sue and be sued, and so can be a “party” entitled to a private attorney general fee award if successful. When an unincorporated association represents its members in an election contest, it must show that its members live in the area affected by the outcome of the election, its members would suffer injury from an adverse outcome in the election contest, and the questions involved were of a public nature. The attempted intervenor in this case satisfied that burden, representing residents of a California State Hospital in the electoral district, whose votes the plaintiff sought to disqualify. Though its motion for leave to intervene was not granted, the association operated as a de facto intervenor in the litigation, presenting evidence, arguments and authority not supplied by the existing parties, on which the trial court largely relied in granting judgment favorable to the Hospital’s residents. The association was entitled to a private attorney general fee award for its work in the case.