February 7, 1985

A Federal judicial panel today consolidated 18 lawsuits against the Union Carbide Corporation for pretrial proceedings in New York City. The pending suits, all filed in this country, grow out of the gas leak disaster at Bhopal, India. Lawyers in the case said they expect more than 20 other pending Bhopal cases - and possibly all similar cases yet to be filed - to go to the same Manhattan court, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. In today's ruling, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation called New York the most convenient place to consolidate such cases, partly because of the proximity of Union Carbide's headquarters at Danbury, Conn.

Stella Fernandez, a short, bubbly widow in her 50's, seemed an unlikely president of the 75-member Van Nest Civilian Patrol as she puttered about her kitchen, deftly tossed chicken stuffing, spooned it into a plump roaster and then sat down to wait patiently for it to cook. What is equally deceptive is the community - a 24-square-block enclave of tightly packed, two-story frame houses developed in the late 19th century before there were paved streets. ''It's all kind of cozy, like a little village where nothing ever happens,'' she said of the area at the bottom of a funnel formed by the Penn Central railroad tracks veering northeast and the Bronx River Parkway heading northwest. But things do happen in Van Nest and in all the other close-knit, Balkans-like neighborhoods that make up the 49th Precinct, the city's newest. Despite its appearance, this is the city, with all its attendant concerns. There are seven resident-manned, volunteer civilian block patrols within the area.

''INSTEAD of wedding 'until death do us part,' couples will enter matrimony knowing from the start that the relationship is short-lived. And when the opportunity presents itself, they will marry again . . . and again . . . and again.'' This prophecy, made by Alvin Toffler 15 years ago in his classic work, ''Future Shock,'' is coming true, according to therapists and divorce lawyers who see a growing number of people who have been married three and even four times. ''A generation or two ago you entered a marriage and you stayed with it for better or worse,'' said Dr. Clifford Sager, director of family psychiatry at the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York City. ''Today we are seeing much more short-term bonding, with an increasing number of men and women going through serial marriages.'' The professionals and those who have been through serial marriages cite many reasons. Among them: the comparative ease of divorce, and the greatly lessened social stigma that it now carries; a romanticization of marriage that cannot live up to the long-term reality; a ''flip the dial'' attitude that fosters moving on as soon as problems or ennui set in; the economic independence of women; a level of affluence that makes multiple families possible for some; an attitude among the so-called me generation that places fulfillment of personal needs ahead of compromise or sharing, and medical advances that have prolonged vigorous life.

Maj. Gen. Joseph A. McChristian, who was chief of intelligence for Gen. William C. Westmoreland in Vietnam for two years, testified yesterday that General Westmoreland acted improperly in 1967 by delaying a cable to Washington reporting higher enemy strength because it would be ''a political bombshell.'' ''It was improper not to send a strength report forward based on political considerations,'' General McChristian told the jury in the trial of General Westmoreland's $120 million libel suit against CBS. General McChristian, who left Vietnam for another assignment two weeks after the cable incident, recalled General Westmoreland saying he wanted to study the cable, and he testified that he did not know what the commander had done with the data in it. The basis for General Westmoreland's suit is a 1982 CBS documentary, ''The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception,'' that charged a ''conspiracy'' by General Westmoreland's command in Vietnam in 1967 to show progress in the war by understating North Vietnamese and Vietcong strength. General Westmoreland testified last November that he wanted a full briefing on General McChristian's new figures and eventually informed his superiors of the data. But General McChristian contradicted General Westmoreland's testimony about the cable incident on a number of points. And he took issue with General Westmoreland's testimony that the Vietcong's self-defense forces were not a military threat and could not be counted accurately.

Under strong pressure from its lenders, Eastern Airlines yesterday began struggling to reach important labor agreements by 12:01 A.M. tomorrow, a timetable set by the company's labor consultant, William J. Usery. Mr. Usery set the deadline as part of a broad package of proposals aimed at reaching agreement with Eastern's three major unions. Eastern endorsed the proposals, but separately said it would continue to impose wage concessions ranging from 18 to 22 percent, a position that is anathema to the unions. Initial reaction to the Usery plan itself by one major union official was negative.