Players leaves early in tourney – ruling?

[2Tone]

Nightly tourney at a local room, $40 buy-in, 10k in chips, 30 players.
Early in the second orbit, a regular who plays the tourney twice a week or so (not me) gets a text – his wife has been in car accident. He immediately leaves, abandoning a stack of about 9500.

TD rules his chips come off the table, and buy-in will be refunded at a later date. Other players, including me, are OK with this.

Agree or disagree? Does your opinion change if
A) If it is a larger buy-in event?
B) If he isn’t a regular?
C) He has a different chip amount (either much higher or much lower)?