April 7, 1982

Former Associate Justice Abe Fortas, who resigned from the Supreme Court in 1969, died of a ruptured aorta Monday night at his home here. At 71 years of age, he maintained an active law practice. Just two weeks before his death, Mr. Fortas returned to the Supreme Court to argue a case for the first time since his resignation. He said in an interview that he planned to keep on practicing law ''until my clients retire me or the Lord retires me.'' Clamor Over $20,000 Fee Mr. Fortas resigned from the Court amid an uproar over disclosures that he had accepted a $20,000 fee from a foundation controlled by Louis E. Wolfson, a friend and former client who at the time of the payment was under Federal investigation for violating securities laws.

The poorest countries may receive an additional $500 million this year in interest-free loans from the International Development Association, an affiliate of the World Bank, the bank reported today. Countries that contribute money to the association agreed after a two-day meeting that $3.1 billion may be available for the financial year ending June 30 instead of $2.6 billion that had been contemplated, following a sharp cutback by the United States. The United States had originally planned to give $1.08 billion to the agency, which makes 50-year, no-interest rate loans to about 40 of the poorest countries, but Congress scaled this back to $700 million as part of its budget-cutting effort. The other 32 donor countries then said that they too would scale back their contributions in corresponding amounts.

Metromedia, Inc., the nation's fourth-largest broadcast operation, yesterday announced an unusual plan to raise $450 million, some of which would be used in connection with its pending $220 million purchase of WCVB-TV in Boston. The company proposes to sell some of the operating assets of its Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising division to investors in a limited partnership. Metromedia or a subsidiary would be the general partner, and would not only manage the partnership business through its Foster & Kleiser division, but also would retain the right to reacquire the partnership's assets.

Governor Carey is proposing major changes in the state's medical malpractice insurance system, including the creation of a state fund to pay 90 percent of the cost of malpractice awards of between $250,000 and $1 million. The changes would be linked to measures designed to strengthen the system of disciplining physicians, which has come under attack for being cumbersome and ineffective. ''It is the carrot-and-stick approach,'' said Dr. Jeffrey A. Sachs, an aide to Mr. Carey. ''We want to help the majority of doctors who are good, by moving against those who are not.''

New Yorkers have a tendency to take everything personally, and that includes the weather. In other parts of the world, what took place yesterday would have been called a blizzard, but in New York City, it was characterized as divine retribution, poetic justice and just my luck. The slush at every street corner and sewer drain, the white drape on the new shoots in Central Park, the arc of snow and ice and water shooting from under passing buses, the stinging sleet in the face and the mascara running blackly down fashionable cheeks, the momentary cessation of spring for an unseasonable dose of winter: all were viewed, not as a momentous natural phenomenon, but as the meterological equivalent of a subway door slamming in the face or a near miss by a taxicab. A man who preaches with a portable microphone at the corner of 42d Street and Eighth Avenue said the snow had fallen to signal the coming judgment to New Yorkers, who are all sinners.