Every carrier for hire maintaining offices or stations within this State for the receipt of nursery stock for transportation to points within or without the State, and the agents and servants of every such carrier, shall determine, before accepting stock for transportation to points within or without the State, that the stock offered for shipment at any such office or station is properly provided with a certificate as required by R.S. 4:7-15 to R.S. 4:7-35, signed by authority of the department and valid by its terms at the date on which the shipment is offered.
Every such carrier for hire and the agents and servants of every such carrier shall refuse for transportation in and delivery to points within this State, all boxes, bales, or parcels of nursery stock which are not accompanied by a certificate of inspection as required by R.S. 4:7-30; but shipments of nursery stock from countries foreign to the United States, and bearing a certificate signed by a proper official of the country from which the stock was received, may be accepted at any port of entry within the State for transportation to points within or without the State.
For every violation of this section, and for every bale, box, parcel or package accepted or transported without such certificate, the carrier shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars ($50.00), to be sued for and recovered by and in the name of the department in the manner provided in article one of chapter twenty-three of this Title (R.S. 4:23-1 et seq.) in the Superior Court or a municipal court of any municipality.
N.J.S. § 4:7-33