The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected arguments that a lawyer's "selection and compilation" of documents in responding to a federal inquiry reflected the lawyer's "mental processes and opinions" and were therefore barred from discovery.

The decision came in a construction defects case in which the home builder, Toll Brothers Inc., argued that the work product doctrine barred it from disclosing documents, or making its outside attorney sit for a deposition about a 2016 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.