A 66-year-old man who has been treated with liver cirrhosis was admitted to the emergency department one week after returning from Argentina and was having difficulty breathing and had a fever. Because the chest X-ray revealed right pleural effusion, he was hospitalized immediately. Thoracocentesis performed on day 1 revealed exudative pleural effusion in which Listeria monocytogenes was isolated by bacterial culture. Empyema was improved by both thoracic drainage and intravenous administration of penicillin antibiotics. Listeria infection is known to be one of the zoonotic infections and is usually presented as meningitis or bacteremia in humans. Listeria monocytogenes empyema is extremely rare and fewer than 20 cases have been reported in English literature. We here describe a possible association between Listeria monocytogenes empyema and liver dysfunction with some literature reviews.